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.

French food giant Danone was "lulled into a false sense of security" by allegedly misleading information Fonterra gave it months before the botulism scare.

Fonterra's attempt to suspend the legal action it is facing from Danone over last year's botulism scare is due to be heard today in the High Court.

Fonterra Cooperative Group has tapped the president of its China operations, Kelvin Wickham, to head up the newly created global ingredients

Fonterra has been slapped with a $150,000 fine for breaching disclosure requirements to the NZX over the botulism false alarm last August.

Liam Dann asks, "How worried should we be about the slump in global dairy prices? After all these years, NZ is still a giant grass-processing factory and milk remains the lifeblood of our economy."

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

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.

Farm investment company MyFarm expects Fonterra to announce a $6.60 to $6.80 a kg milk price for the 2014/15 year when the co-operative issues its forecasts this morning.

Dairy farmers can expect to see a drop in the milk price to around $7 a kg of milk solids .

Infant formula firms that claim to have lost millions as a result of Fonterra's botulism scare were told they were not victims - and denied a chance to have their say.

Dairy giant Fonterra's attempt to suspend the legal action it is facing from French food company Danone over last year's botulism scare is due to be heard in the High Court in June.

Alan Fitzsimmons still gets a buzz out of opening up new markets for Fonterra after more than two decades selling New Zealand dairy products to the world.

The cross-border tourism trade from mainland China is a big part of the retail scene in Hong Kong.

Fonterra's record farmgate milk price forecast may have to come back slightly after international dairy prices fell again at last night's dairy auction, but the decline should not detract from what has been a stellar season for the sector.

Dairy product prices have kept falling in the latest overnight, falling 2.6 per cent to 14-month low, paced by whole milk powder.

Fonterra has come to a compelling realisation it will need to develop "Chinese feet".

Fonterra CEO Theo Spierings has centralised control of the company's Chinese farming hubs into a new standalone business unit to make faster progress growing its milk pools in China.

A judge who fined Fonterra $300,000 over the events leading to last year's botulism scare says New Zealand's reputation as an exporter was "shaken" by the incident.

Fonterra Australia has been selected as the preferred supplier to process Woolworths "Own Brand'' milk in Victoria for the next 10 years

A substantially lower payout from Fonterra for 2014/15 looks likely after international dairy prices dropped sharply at yesterday's international dairy auction, economists said.