Questions over 30,000 tonnes of NZ butter

The main question hanging over dairy exports is what will happen to Fonterra butter which has not yet been shipped to Europe, says agricultural analyst Bill Bailey.

"With reported estimates of 30,000 tonnes of New Zealand origin butter in limbo until some decision comes from the European Union bureaucracy, the market will try to sort out where the butter could end up."

Butter imports to Europe were temporarily suspended this year, after a European Court of Justice ruling that parts of the regulations that controlled the New Zealand quota were invalid.

A Fonterra spokesman declined to comment on contingency plans for selling butter it is unable to get into the European market this year.

Bailey, formerly of Massey University, runs the agriculture department at Western Illinois University. He said what would happen to the butter was a "major unresolved market issue ... it is simply a question of, at what price?"