Category: Business

Source: Radio New Zealand

Dairy prices rose again at the global dairy trade auction overnight – continuing a reversal of last year’s downward swing and raising questions about whether a $10 milk payout could be back on the table.

The average price rose 3.6 percent to US$4028 a tonne – it follows the 6.7 percent rise a fortnight ago, and is the fourth consecutive increase of the year.

Rabobank Dairy Analyst Emma Higgins said it was a “very good result” for New Zealand dairy farmers, with meaningful gains across key products.

The price of wholemilk powder, which strongly affects farmer payouts, rose 2.5 percent to US$3706 a tonne.

Prices for other products were mostly stronger, including a sharp increase in butter which rose over 10 percent.

“Overall, the event reinforced a couple of things. First is that there is improving demand sentiment across the dairy complex,” Higgins said.

“With current current dairy commodity prices where they are, the question begs whether we’ll start to see an increase in the farmgate milk price forecast for the 2025/26 season.”

Higgins was cautiously optimistic, adding there was still a lot of milk available on the global market at the moment.

“We’ve had some incredibly strong growth in the European Union, particularly driven from Ireland, France and Poland. And then if we think about the United States, we’ve seen consistently strong milk production for the majority of 2025.

“That was the reason that we saw weaker commodity prices at the back half of last year. It was the reason that we saw farmgate milk prices slashed by Christmas time.

“Now we’ve got the situation where demand is starting to improve, and at the same time, we’re starting to see perhaps some signals as we move through 2026 that supply environment will start to tighten up.”

She said current market dynamics would suggest there was support for lifting the current milk price forecast from where it sits at that midpoint range of $9, up to somewhere around the $9.50 per kilogram of milk solid mark.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Reserve Bank has held the official cash rate steady at 2.25 percent, as expected.

The central bank says the economy is gradually recovering but it is uneven, and its priority is to get inflation back into the middle of its target band.

More to come…

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Source: Radio New Zealand

• Tower paid out $12m already in bad weather claims, expects more
• Company has $45m fund for big events, a quarter already spent
• Full year underlying profit will be almost halved if events fund exhausted
• Chair criticises lack of action on climate change as “costing lives and money”

Local insurance company Tower expects a rise in weather-related claims will nearly halve its profits this year, as its chair criticised the lack of action to confront climate change.

The company’s annual meeting heard it had already used about $12 million of its budgeted $45m to cover large events, and expected more costs from the storms of the past week.

“This includes the October windstorm, the Timaru hailstorm in November, and the late January nationwide storm,” chief executive Paul Johnston said.

“Claims from the stormy weather across New Zealand over the past few days are still being assessed and at this early stage, Tower expects costs to exceed its … large events threshold.”

It forecast its full year underlying profit would be between $55m-$65m from a record $107m in 2025 if it used all of its large events fund.

Johnston told the meeting the first part of the year has been steady with growth in house policies, premium growth, and adding new customers.

The company said its risk based pricing meant it building a less vulnerable business, while its technical upgrades have sped up the processing of claims with more motor claims were being referred directly to repairers.

Climate change costing lives and money

The retiring chair, business veteran Michael Stiassny, said too little progress was being made in tackling climate change.

“In the wake of the tragic events at Mount Maunganui, Papamoa and Warkworth, we face a chilling reality. Climate change is here, and it’s costing lives and money.”

He said some progress to tackle the impacts of extreme weather events had been “haphazard, inadequate and painfully slow”.

Stiassny said three years after Cyclone Gabrielle there had been no decisive action to prevent loss of life, prevent building on flood plains, active measures to protect against floods from more frequent and severe rain events.”

“Are we confident that our infrastructure is resilient and will cope with large storms that are no longer anomalies? The answer is a resounding no.”

Insurance review questioned

Stiassny also questioned the planned review of the insurance industry ordered by the government earlier this month from financial regulators to look at the high cost of insurance and growing evidence that some companies are refusing to insure certain towns or parts of towns.

“The rate of premium increase is either on par with the sum insured increase or much lower. In short, premiums have not climbed as much as some Ministers have said,” he said.

“The real issue when it comes to insurance affordability is the cost of living more generally for Kiwis. With costs of all goods and services spiralling up significantly more than incomes, it is inevitable that some people are unable to afford insurance.”

He said levies for Fire and Emergency and Natural Hazards Insurance made up about 40 percent of premiums, over which it had no control.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

ASB has joined the Kāinga Ora First Home Loan scheme, which allows borrowers to buy a house with a deposit of only 5 percent.

The loan is underwritten by Kāinga Ora, so borrowers are usually able to access the same interest rates as buyers with 20 percent deposit.

Previously it had only been available through Westpac, Kiwibank, The Co-Operative Bank, SBS, Unity, Nelson Building Society and NZHL.

ASB executive general manager personal banking Adam Boyd said home ownership was a “cornerstone of financial wellbeing and security for many New Zealanders”.

“This loan helps to get more people into their own homes without the challenge of saving a large deposit while managing everyday expenses, like rent.”

He said people using the scheme could also be eligible for ASB’s cash back offer.

Glen McLeod, head of Link Advisory, said it added another lending option for people thinking about buying a first home.

“The underlying criteria and approval process remain the same, as Kāinga Ora is still the gatekeeper for applications. More lender choice is positive, but the practical impact will depend on each client’s situation and how they meet Kāinga Ora’s existing requirements.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Fletcher Building has posted a smaller half-year loss as the company continues to clean up its long-list of legacy issues, while business remains challenging.

Key numbers for the six months ended December compared with a year ago:

• Net loss $11m vs $134m loss
• Revenue $3.37b vs $3.58b
• Revenue from continuing operations $2.87b vs $2.85b
• Profit from continuing operations $45m vs $88m loss
• Significant items $7m vs $177m
• No dividend

Chief executive Andrew Reding said Fletcher was making progress in difficult trading conditions.

“The first half of [financial year 2026] was another demanding period for the building industry, with subdued markets across New Zealand and Australia,” he said.

“Conditions differed between a particularly weak first quarter and a more stable second quarter,” Reding said. “In that environment, our core manufacturing businesses held up well, supported by disciplined cost control and better operational execution.”

Fletcher’s interim result last year was affected by $177 million in one-off items related to its legacy projects, compared to $7m in one-offs in the latest period.

Revenue from continuing operations was flat on the prior year, with lower New Zealand volumes and ongoing competitive pressure, which was offset by stable performances in its core manufacturing businesses.

Last month, Fletcher announced the sale of its construction division, as the company worked to simplify the business after years of pressure from delayed projects and cost overruns.

“The sale of Construction is a major step in reshaping Fletcher Building into a simpler, more focused building products manufacturing and distribution group,” Reding said.

“Combined with the cost and capital discipline we have put in place, it positions the Group well to benefit as market conditions recover.”

Reding expected market conditions to remain challenging in the near term.

“In New Zealand, residential and civil demand is likely to remain relatively subdued through [financial year 2026], with a more meaningful recovery not anticipated until calendar year 2027,” he said.

“In Australia, early signs of stabilisation are emerging in parts of the portfolio, although conditions remain uneven.”

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Perfect growing conditions for grapes at a time when demand for wine is dropping is likely to result in more fruit left on the vine again this harvest

Kudos, Kiwis, for dramatically dropping your alcohol consumption – especially our younger generations.

But the wine industry wants words.

“In the last 10 to 15 years, each of us, on average, have slashed our consumption of New Zealand wine by 50 percent. I mean, that is dramatic,” says wine writer Michael Cooper.

He used to write best-selling wine bibles on the industry here – not so any more. There isn’t the demand.

Cooper describes the situation now faced by the industry as a crisis, and not just because of our more sober society.

Tariffs, an international drop in demand, and a couple of years of perfect growing conditions have led to grapes being left unpicked.

Some estimates suggest that last year 100,000 tonnes of grapes – roughly a fifth of the potential crop – was left withering and rotting on the vines. The 2026 harvest is upon us, and the same thing is likely to happen.

“Just imagine if you’re a wine maker, and suddenly your domestic market, the people who you’re pouring all your passion into catering for, they’re now drinking only a half of your wine [in terms of the whole industry] that they used to only 10 or 15 years ago,” says Cooper.

As well as that, nearly half (47.8 percent) of the wine we drink here is now imported. About a decade ago that figure was about a third of total consumption.

“Back in 1980, 95 percent of the domestic market was New Zealand (wines),” says Cooper.

It’s cheaper to drink imported wine. Plus, some very successful wineries have now been bought out by foreign-owned entities, including world-famous brands such as Montana, which is sourcing grapes more cheaply from Australia.

“And more and more of those wines that are getting shipped are bulk wines, so what that means is that for the majority of vine producers in New Zealand is they’re small, they’re family-owned, and they’re confronted with the reality that the domestic market is halved. And for so many of them export is something that they’d love to do but really struggle to do. Scale becomes an issue … if you’re making a relatively small volume of wine, then to be traipsing around the world is a challenge.”

Such companies are looking to diversify their export attempts away from purely English-speaking markets, saying there’s been some complacency about export markets.

The state of the industry “truly is a crisis,” says Cooper. “I’ve certainly seen nothing like this in my time in and around the industry, which dates back to 1975. No one really saw this coming.”

Viticultural researcher and wine master Ross Wise, at the Bragato Research Institute in Blenheim, tempers that with some encouraging news about new developments where New Zealand is at the top of its game.

This includes helping wineries making lighter, fresher styles of wines; improving the taste of no and low alcohol wines; trying drought-resistant root stocks; and methods to help manage the costs of production.

He talks to The Detail about the innovation going on in this country, including new canopy systems and developments in pruning.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Homeowners becoming willing to brave the housing market and shift to a new property could be a positive thing for the economy, one economist says.

Cotality, formerly Corelogic, has released its latest property data pack.

It shows that sales volumes were down 10.7 percent on the same month in 2025. It followed a stronger-than-expected December.

Property economist Kelvin Davidson said, when taking the two months together, there was still an overall lift in transactions.

“We’d expect to see more sales growth activity in 2026 on the back of reduced mortgage rates and a recovering economy,” he said.

Values dropped 1 percent in the year to January but Cotality said while Auckland and Wellington were soft, areas such as Dunedin and Invercargill had more pressure on prices.

Nationally prices are still down 17.5 percent from their peak but Wellington’s are down 25.5 percent compared to 3.6 percent in Christchurch.

First-home buyers were still a strong force in the market, but dropped to 26.2 percent of transactions compared to 28.3 percent at the end of 2025.

Investors were also active. But chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said movers’ share of the market increased from 25.3 percent to 27 percent. These are people who own a home and are moving to another.

“To be fair, it’s early days. But this could be the first sign that as economic confidence starts to recover more owner-occupying households may start to look at the market again and relocate. Their activity has been quieter than normal lately, so some pent-up demand to shift is probably present.

“They’ve been relatively quiet for quite a long time, biding their time, Watching the economy still feeling a little bit cautious about taking that next step, trading up, moving house. You probably don’t necessarily want to do that if you don’t have to in an uncertain environment.”

He said it was not a trend yet but something he had been watching for.

“All that time that movers have been quiet, there’s still been life going on. People have been changing their circumstances yet not moving. So I suspect there’s probably a bit of pent-up demand there that will come out at some point.”

He said, if it did, people such as valuers and real estate salespeople would benefit, but so too would big ticket retailers. “A good time to move house might be a good time to get a new sofa, that sort of thing.”

Flat prices might disappoint sellers but were positive for buyers.

“The predictability of current conditions is reassuring for buyers, who are continuing to adjust to the recent experience of stable prices and lower mortgage rates,” Davidson said.

“With affordability gradually improving and employment conditions set to strengthen slowly this year, there’s a growing sense of cautious optimism, even if the recovery will be measured rather than sharp. Debt to income ratio caps remain important to watch.”

The data showed rents were subdued.

Prices were down over the year in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga and Wellington.

The median national rent fell 0.8 percent in the last quarter of the year compared to the same time a year earlier.

Davidson said it was likely behaviour would shift, activity would improve and 2026 would be a year of gradual growth for sales and prices.

“Affordability has improved to its best position in several years, mortgage rates have eased, and listings are gradually drifting lower. Those factors combined are helping to steady the market and should support a lift in sales activity through 2026,” he said.

“Other considerations include borrowers who are rolling off higher fixed rates onto cheaper loans, which will help free up cashflow for some households and should the labour market slowly gather steam as expected, that sets the scene for modest price growth rather than a sharp rebound.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Oppo managing director Morgan Halim would usually consider 500 a high number of applicants for a job ad.

So when a current advertisement ticked over 2500 applications – and counting – he was shocked.

“It’s quite surprising, actually. We have multiple ads running and this particular one has far exceeded our expectations.”

The job is a customer service role based in central Auckland. It requires someone with demonstrated experience in customer service and says it is advantageous for the applicant to have experience in a call centre.

“We brought back our call centre that used to be in Malaysia back to New Zealand. We made some changes about two years ago and we’ve found in this role there’s pretty good interest every time we advertise.”

He said more people applied for the entry level roles, such as this one, than the ones with more specialist requirements. Oppo is also advertising for a content creator.

Halim said he would work with a human resources partner to do the vetting on the thousands of applicants, and then the process would be worked through between three people. “It’s usually the HR person, the manager and myself. What we do is we work as a team and understand location-wise where they’re from, that’s important because we work in the CBD and we want to make sure they’re comfortable to come in and out from the business.

“Also experience, what we’re looking fo, we can usually narrow the options down quite quickly.”

He said only 44 percent of applicants for this role were from New Zealand.

“It’s still a lot of numbers, 44 percent is about a thousand and something but it at least cuts it in half, basically.”

He said it was good to know that so many people wanted to work for Oppo, which currently has a team of 27.

Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said there were still high numbers of applicants being recorded across all job listings.

“As of November 2025, which is the latest data we’ve got, relative to November 2019, which is sort of a fairly good pre-pandemic figure, we have seen a 243 percent increase in the number of applicants per job ad on the Seek site, at least.

“There is a substantial increase coming through, and it’s going to take a lot for that number to come back to anywhere near normal. It’s going to take both a large increase in the number of jobs being listed, noting that we’re still about 25 percent down on pre-pandemic levels in terms of job numbers, but also, clearly, there’s a heck of a lot of competition out there, given the unemployment rate is high as well.”

He said the number of applications per filled job seemed to have stabilised in the past six months but at very high levels.

“Looking through the monthly figures, there’s no indication that it’s necessarily getting any worse, but, equally, nothing to show it’s getting any better immediately, either.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

You weren’t imagining it – Valentine’s Day chocolate probably was more expensive this year.

Stats NZ data shows food prices up 4.6 percent in the year to January, after a 4 percent increase in the 12 months to December.

Grocery prices were up 4 percent.

Sirloin steak lifted 22.9 percent over the year, white bread 57.9 percent and takeaway coffee 6.6 percent, to an average $5.16 a cup.

Chocolate was up 20.5 percent to $6.89 per 250 grams.

Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said there was usually a price increase for chocolate in either January or February in the lead-up to Valentine’s Day.

“But chocolate prices have now increased 20 percent, that’s three months in a row of double digit annual price increases.”

He said it was the first time in Stats NZ data that chocolate prices had topped $6 on average for 250g and they were close to $7.

“I do suspect part of that as well is some of the pricing changes you’ve seen in recent times … part of that will be around specials that are offered or not, and also the fact that Whittaker’s has raised their chocolate prices as well in the last couple of months. That might well be filtering through into the numbers.”

He said there was international pressure on chocolate prices. Cocoa prices had eased a little from highs earlier in 2025 but New Zealand chocolate prices never lifted as much as cocoa did.

“Long story short, where international chocolate prices were at the end of last year up a good 37 percent from where international cocoa prices were two years ago. I suspect that the increase you’re seeing is a combination of pricing changes coming through in the system already, the usual Valentine’s Day spike, but being amplified by those international chocolate prices or cocoa prices going up, that have taken a while to filter their way through into the system.”

Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod said Valentine’s Day was probably not a major driver of the price change.

“Chocolate prices get heavily discounted in November and December in the run up to Christmas. They come off special in January and then get discounted again over February.”

Woolworths was this week selling 250g blocks of Whittaker’s chocolate for $7.49.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

*Clarification: This article has been updated to clarify AA Insurance’s policy

Aucklanders may finally be getting some relief on their insurance premiums – but the same cannot be said for Wellington and Christchurch, and some people are struggling to get it at all.

Consumer NZ said its latest survey of house and contents insurance premiums showed the median price for insurance for a large house in Auckland had dropped 11 percent year-on-year.

But in Wellington and Christchurch, the cost of insurance was up 10 percent.

Wellington was the most expensive city in the country for house insurance. The median cost of house and contents cover for a standard home was $3824 a year, Consumer’s insurance expert Rebecca Styles said.

Dunedin has the cheapest home insurance options, with the median cost for house and contents insurance for a standard home coming in at $2227.

The quotes were based on a couple with a standard-sized house insured for $560,000 and contents for $90,000, and a family of four with a large house insured for $840,000 and contents for $140,000.

Styles said people could often save money by shopping around.

“When we compared policies with the same excess and sum insured across the six centres, we found the median potential saving was about $550.

“More than eight in 10 people have had the same insurance provider for at least three years. When people decide to switch, it’s usually because of price, and with some of the savings available, we can see why.”

She said people who could find a better price elsewhere could use that to try to negotiate a discount with their current provider.

Opting for a higher excess could also mean lower premiums. But Styles said people should not set their excess so high they could not cover it if they had to claim.

“Ask your insurer if your premiums would be cheaper if you installed an alarm or security cameras – the savings might subsidise the installation costs. If you can afford to, pay your premiums annually – you should get a discount.”

Styles said 1 percent of the 3000 people who responded to the survey said they could not switch because no other provider would offer insurance.

The Auckland drop was coming on the back of a large spike after Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland Anniversary weekend flooding, she said. It could be that flood mitigation efforts and infrastructure improvements were also reducing risk.

But people in high risk areas were likely to find it harder to find insurance, she said.

“I think in Wellington and Christchurch, it’s the same old thing of earthquakes, floods and landslides. And it just means that we’re paying more and more for insurance in those regions.

“With the reports of AA Insurance not covering some postcodes, and I think other insurers are weighing up risk across the country, they’re always monitoring their risk portfolios and making sure they don’t have too much risk in one area more so than another. And, if we don’t do anything about a climate adaptation framework, practically in terms of infrastructure – there’s just more and more frequent extreme weather events and flooding – if the infrastructure doesn’t keep up with that, I think prices will just keep going up and up.”

AA Insurance has implemented a temporary pause on new house and landlord policies in a small number of areas across New Zealand.

If someone was struggling to find suitable cover, they could contact the Natural Hazards Commission and ask about its natural hazards cover, which offered more limited protection, she said. “It’s sort of the insurance of last resort for natural hazards. So it would be for your house, it wouldn’t be for your contents.”

She said the government’s investigation into the insurance market would help in terms of giving people assurance about whether they were paying fair price.

“We eagerly await the outcome of that, given it’ll be at least six months.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand