The final farmgate milk price for the 2025-26 season was NZ$9.69 per kgMS.
The co-op also declared a final fully imputed dividend of 33 cents per share, bringing fully imputed total dividends for the year to 73 cents per share.
Fonterra chairman Peter McBride said the co-operative has continued building momentum and delivered at the top end of its performance expectations.
Fonterra CEO Richard Allen said the co-operative’s disciplined approach to strategic execution has once again generated strong results.
“Despite some challenging conditions, including weather events and geopolitical volatility, we leveraged our full supply chain network and logistics partnerships to keep milk moving, achieving record shipping volumes and materially improving our delivery performance,” Mr Allen said.
Total group reported operating profit was NZ$3.4 billion, up from $1.7 billion last year, including the Mainland divestment benefit of NZ$1.2 billion.
“One year ago, we set a target for earnings to return to FY25 levels within three years if the consumer and associated businesses were divested,” Mr Allen said.
“I’m pleased to share that our team’s focused execution of strategy in FY26 has got us to that target already, with underlying operating profit for our continuing business of $1.8 billion and profit after tax of $1.2 billion, equivalent to 71 cents per share.”
The co-operative’s return on capital was 14.2 per cent, above our target range of 10-12 per cent and showing the value of our focused business-to-business (B2B) strategy.
“Our ingredients business delivered $1293 million in operating profit, supported by strong global protein demand, favourable pricing and product mix decisions.
In Foodservice, we achieved $547 million in operating profit, which was driven largely by volume and pricing growth across all product categories and markets,” Mr Allen said.
Mr Allen said Fonterra’s strategy to create value for farmers through disciplined capital choices, operational efficiencies, innovation and a customer focus is delivering results, and would continue to guide its new era as a B2B Co-op.
“Our foundations are in our New Zealand milk supply, and as we move forward as a B2B Co-op, we’ll stay focused on making our farmer offering as competitive as possible,” he said.
“This includes helping farmers with practical tools and services to make compliance easier and targeted support for the next generation of co-op farm owners.
“This year, we also confirmed the planned expansion of our organic milk business into the South Island and are continuing with our recruitment drive for more organic farmers across the country to meet growing demand, off the back of a record organic milk price of $14.13 per kgMS.
“Our New Zealand milk is complemented by our high value, offshore whey protein sourcing, which in FY26 continued to deliver outstanding returns to the portfolio.”
