Fonterra-owned GlobalDairyTrade (GDT) has added another product line and a new participant to its online trading platform.

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.

Fonterra's $7 per kg farmgate milk price forecast for 2014/15 is once again under significant downward pressure because of ongoing falls in international dairy prices.

June provided further evidence that the terms of trade is headed south, albeit from the most favourable levels in 40 years.

New Zealand commodity prices fell for a fourth straight month in June, led by apples, logs, whole and skim milk powder.

Speculation is mounting that Fonterra is on the verge of securing a profit-sharing agreement with a British dairy producer.

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.

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."

The ink is barely dry on Fonterra's milk price forecast for 2014/15 and there are already signs that it could be revised downwards.

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.