Fonterra posts $196 million loss

Fonterra has posted an annual loss of $196 million for the 2018 financial year. The final farmgate price per kilogram of milk solids will be $6.69.

The total cash payout for the year will be $6.79 per kilogram of milk solids. It is made up of the farmgate milk price and a dividend of 10 cents per share.

It has forecast a 2019 financial year milk price of $6.75 per kilogram of milk solids.

Interim CEO Miles Hurrell says the cooperative's results need to improve.

"There's no two ways about it - these results don't meet the standards we need to live up to. In [financial year 2018], we did not meet the promises we made to farmers and unit holders," says Mr Hurrell.

"At our interim results, we expected our performance to be weighted to the second half of the year. We needed to deliver an outstanding third and fourth quarter, after an extremely strong second quarter for sales and earnings - but that didn't happen."

Newshub.