Wednesday, 27 February 2013 14:18

$100m investment in UHT plant

Written by 

Fonterra will invest more than $100 million in a new UHT milk processing plant at its Waitoa site in the Waikato.

Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings says the new plant would enable the cooperative to meet growing demand for UHT products in Asia.

"The new plant will enable us to increase our UHT production by 100% over the next few years," Spierings says. "The plant will include five new UHT lines that will produce a range of products including UHT white milk and UHT cream for the foodservice sector.

"Products from the new plant will be bound for Asia markets and that will allow us to concentrate all our domestic UHT production – including Fonterra Milk for Schools – at Takanini in Auckland."

Spierings says together with the construction opportunities and the creation of an additional 50 jobs, the development would provide new opportunities for Fonterra farmers in the North Island.

"Milk supply in New Zealand is seasonal because it follows the grass growth curve. However UHT production requires year round milk supply so we will be talking to our farmers about the opportunity for more of them to take up winter milk contracts. This will enable them to take advantage of the milk price premium that these contracts include.

"A recent survey of our farmers indicated that a good proportion of them in the Upper North Island would be keen to take up winter milk contracts," Spierings says.

More like this

Fonterra R&D: Innovation needs more than just PhDs

Common sense and good human judgement are still a key requirement for the super highly qualified staff working at one of New Zealand's largest and most important research facilities - Fonterra's R&D Centre at Palmerston North.

Misguided campaign

OPINION: Last week, Greenpeace lit up Fonterra's Auckland headquarters with 'messages from the common people' - that the sector is polluting the environment.

Featured

Big return on a small investment

Managing director of Woolover Ltd, David Brown, has put a lot of effort into verifying what seems intuitive, that keeping newborn stock's core temperature stable pays dividends by helping them realise their full genetic potential.

Editorial: Sensible move

OPINION: The Government's decision to rule out changes to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) that would cost every farmer thousands of dollars annually, is sensible.

National

Machinery & Products

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Cuddling cows

OPINION: Years of floods and low food prices have driven a dairy farm in England's northeast to stop milking its…

Bikinis in cowshed

OPINION: An animal activist organisation is calling for an investigation into the use of dairy cows in sexuallly explicit content…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter