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Synlait Milk, the listed dairy processor, has cut its forecast market milk price for the 2014/2015 season along with a corresponding decrease in advance rates to farmers due to depressed global dairy prices.  The Canterbury-based company lowered its forecast payout to $4.40 per kilogram of milk solids from a previous forecast of $5.00/kgMS, it said in a statement. The move follows dairy …

Summerset Group Holdings, the listed retirement village, has been granted resource consent for its $80 million Wigram village, its first in Christchurch. The new site will have some 200 units, including villas, townhouses and care apartments as well as 50 hospital-level beds, the Wellington-based company said in a statement. Building will begin next month with first homes opening late next year. …

Graeme Harrison, chairman of meat company Anzco Foods, is to fund a new professorial chair in global value chains and trade at Lincoln University, initially for a term of five years.  The new position will sit within the university’s agribusiness and commerce faculty, which already has a global value chain and trade department. The university declined to release financial details …

The Ministry for Primary Industries and Zespri International, the world’s largest kiwifruit marketer, are monitoring reports that staff at a Chinese company that imports a number of New Zealand’s primary sector products have been arrested in a crackdown by Chinese Customs.  According to a National Business Review report, nine staff at Dalian Yidu are understood to have been arrested in …

Kiwi scientist Dr Phil Rolston has been awarded the Chinese Government’s most prestigious science prize for his work in grasslands seed development.  Dr Rolston, Senior Scientist at AgResearch Lincoln, received the award at a ceremony in The Great Hall of the People which was attended by President Xi Jinping, Vice-Premier Li Keqiang, and Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang. …

Jenny Morel’s venture capital firm No. 8 Ventures and Martin Aircraft Co founder Glenn Martin plan to cut their stakes in the jetpack business ahead of a planned initial public offer, which will see China-based investor KuangChi Science invest A$50 million to take a majority holding in the firm.  The Christchurch-based company has changed the terms of its offer, which will see the firm list on …

Synlait Milk, which plans to take a quarter-stake in Sichuan New Hope Nutritional Foods Co to gain a direct interest in a Chinese infant formula brand, has talked down the threat of dry conditions in Canterbury, saying its farmer suppliers have reliable access to irrigation water. The Rakaia-based milk processor hasn’t seen a drop in milk production as parts of …