Interim profit falls more than 50 per cent for Fonterra

Fonterra reported a net profit after tax for the six months ended January 31 of $NZ217 million ($A204 million) which was down by 53 per cent over the same period a year earlier despite rising revenues.

The New Zealand dairy exporter pointed to the price of milk. Fonterra processed around a quarter of the milk collected over the period into cheese, casein and other products rather than high value milk powder.

"The past six months has been a period of mixed fortunes for the co-operative," said Spierings.

"We processed as much of this milk into the higher returning milk powder product streams as we could," Spierings said.

"However, our current asset footprint meant that around 25 per cent had to be processed into cheese, casein and other non-reference commodity products which earned negative returns over the period."

“Looking ahead, the outlook for dairy remains strong, and the business has plans in place to profit from the continued rise in global dairy demand,” said Spierings.