New Zealand Minister of Agriculture Jim Sutton said on Tuesday the government had deferred a dairy industry request for regulatory exemption to allow the merger between New Zealand Dairy Group and Kiwi Co-operative Dairies, IndustrySearch reports. Although not objecting to the proposed merger the government underlined that it will be looking into the merger issues of contestability, fair entry and exit value, and unbundling of returns. If approved the merged entity would be the world's 14th largest dairy company, employing 18,000 people and with revenues in excess of $NZ 10 billion.