A light-proof milk bottle described as a world innovation is being criticised by recyclers who say the complex packaging has a number of drawbacks.

An industry group is continuing to defend itself against accusations that it damaged this country's lucrative reputation for safe dairy products during a visit to a trade show in China this month.

Capital projects worth more than $1 billion are either under way or on the drawing board as the dairy industry gears up for increased demand from Asia for our milk powder.

A stoush has erupted in the lucrative infant formula export industry after Chinese media outlets published articles about a newly formed export association.

Rain has fallen in most of the nation's dairying areas over the last week or so, but Fonterra chairman John Wilson said it would take six weeks to determine whether the drought that hit most of the country had caused any lasting damage.

The man who found a pill in his bottle of milk has admitted it was a tablet he had been taking which he didn't recognise because it had swollen to four times its size.

Prices of dairy products recorded their smallest gain this year, edging up to a new record.

Fonterra's not-so-little brother, Westland Milk, says it's sticking with its co-operative model.

Maori-controlled, with a Vietnamese connection, one of the country's newest dairy companies does things a little bit differently from the big boys, discovers Jamie Gray.

With the rapid adoption of modern farming technologies, agriculture is an increasingly important part of the economy, writes John Wilson.

Dairy giant to pick up the premium it has so far left on the table, writes Fran O'Sullivan.

Prices of dairy products have surged to a record in Fonterra's latest global online auction as traders competed for a shrinking volume of drought-affected milk powder.

Led by dairy products, prices for export commodities surged last month - and this time the rise in world prices was not eaten up by a higher exchange rate.

Goodman Property Trust could own the new $60 million to $80 million Fonterra headquarters to be built near Auckland's waterfront.

Fletcher Building and Goodman Group are planning a $500 million four- to five-building commercial office precinct near Auckland's waterfront, a boss involved in the deal says.

A West Coast farming expert says he is seeing first-hand the pressures being put on farmers battling to combat the effects of the big dry.

Dairy giant Fonterra has launched a "world-first" bottle that it says will protect milk from light and keep it fresher and tasting better for longer.

The drought gripping most of the country is hitting dairy farmers hard, but soaring export prices will partially offset lost production, economists say.

Prices of dairy products surged to the highest in two years in Fonterra's latest Global Dairy Trade auction as drought curtails production in the North Island.

One of the unwritten skills in the job description for being Fonterra's director for Latin America is a tolerance for those important local business lubricants, aguardiente and tequila.

A climate expert believes summers like this one will become the new norm for New Zealand. Droughts have already been declared across much of the North Island.

Kids at Kamo Primary School at the northern end of Whangarei are split down the middle over an offer of free milk from New Zealand's biggest company, Fonterra.

The drought is working its way down the country, and with with no change predicted until at least mid-March, farmers from Northland to Southland are suffering.