Fonterra and other big players on the international dairy market will need to buy or tie up with more companies to maintain the kind of growth they have enjoyed over the last few years.

Fonterra said milk collection across New Zealand for the month of June reached 9 million kg of milksolids, 10.1 per cent higher than the same month last year.

The fate of the wreckage of the Rena should be a straightforward enough matter. But the final chapter in the saga of the fully-laden container ship is proving anything but.

Dairy product prices fell to the lowest level since January 2013 in the latest GlobalDairyTrade auction, paced by a drop in butter and anhydrous milk fat.

New Zealand business confidence slid this month and rising interest rates have been fingered as the culprit.

This winter was not a good one for farmers in the Fertile Crescent.

India will offload about a quarter of its rice stockpiles and ease restrictions on selling fruit and veggies as a weak monsoon threatens crop output.

The economy probably accelerated in the first quarter, supporting the central bank's view that it must press on with interest rate increases to keep inflation at bay.

It's the $64 billion question - can New Zealand double its primary exports in the next decade without causing unacceptable harm to the environment?

The value of primary exports will fall from unusually high levels over the 2014/15 year before recovering steadily in the following three years.

The rich and powerful are expert at using their dominance of the media to raise the salience in the popular mind of values that suit their interests, writes Bryan Gould.

Weaker dairy prices have acted to drive the NZ dollar lower over the last few months, but currency strategists don't expect the kiwi to go into freefall.

A two-bedroom home with its original 1950s bathroom and kitchen and not in one of Auckland's hottest suburbs has sold for $1.08 million.

Editorial: From time to time, national referendums have thrown a spanner in the EU's plans for closer ties between its members.

Signs of normality returned to the dairy sector yesterday when Fonterra forecast a $7 a kg farmgate milk price for 2014-15.

New Zealand business confidence extended its slide from a record high to a third month, in the face of rising interest rates, declining dairy prices and a persistently high kiwi dollar.

Fonterra has set an opening milk price of $7.00 per kg of milksolids for the 2014/15 season and revised down its forecast for the current season.

Editorial: The Prime Minister made a little-noticed announcement last week that could have much louder repercussions in this year's election campaign.