Dairy companies are confident security measures at their facilities are tight enough to prevent a 1080 contamination.

Fallout from this week's baby formula contamination threat weighed heavily on the New Zealand dollar yesterday, with news of curtailed orders from China driving the currency lower still.

The Government was right to say nothing until discreet inquiries had failed and there is a chance a public appeal might help police catch him. The interval appears to have permitted the industry to be well prepared.

Dairy exports may already be stuck on Chinese wharves as a result of a new import requirement that products be tested for 1080 contamination, says an industry group.

Police have been contacting known 1080 opponents in a bid to find the person behind a threat to contaminate New Zealand's baby formula stocks.

The Warehouse and Foodstuffs are reassuring customers they are doing everything they can to boost security in their stores.

1080 opponents have condemned those behind the baby formula threat letters, branding them "irresponsible" and their actions "total stupidity".

Should New Zealanders have been kept in the dark about the 1080 threats for nearly four months? The answer, on balance, is yes, writes John Armstrong.

After everything New Zealand's infant formula industry has been through over the past few years, the last thing it needed was yesterday's news of the 1080 threat.

Local infant formula producers are optimistic the 1080 threat is minimal but are fearful of the reputation damage it could cause.

The New Zealand dollar dropped by half a US cent on news of a threat to contaminate infant and other formula with 1080 poison.

Threats to contaminate infant formula with 1080 pesticide have been described as despicable and sick - but have caused more outrage than fear.

Dairy product prices rose in the latest overnight GlobalDairyTrade auction.

Fonterra chief financial officer Lukas Paravicini rejects the notion that the co-operative is playing safe in keeping this season's farm gate milk price forecast at $4.70 a kilogram of milksolids.

Fonterra's board will have reason for cautious optimism when it meets tomorrow to review its farmgate milk price forecast for 2014/15.

Dairy prices posted their fifth consecutive gain at this morning’s GlobalDairyTrade auction.

Fonterra Co-operative Group has commissioned a new dairy ingredients plant in Heerenveen, in the north of the Netherlands, its first wholly-owned and operated ingredients plant in Europe.

Economic reform in China, one of New Zealand's largest trading partners accounting for 22 per cent of exports, is a lower priority than trying to save the Communist Party, according to Wall Street....

Dairy prices spiked higher at this morning's GlobalDairyTrade (GDT) auction, the GDT price index gaining 9.4 per cent since the last sale on January 21.

Reduced dairy production is expected to translate into higher prices at Wednesday's GlobalDairyTrade auction.