Open Country opens butter plant
When American retail giant Cosco came to audit Open Country Dairy’s new butter plant at the Waharoa site and give the green light to supply their American stores, they allowed themselves a week for the exercise.
The World Dairy Expo and Summit is the premier annual event for China's dairy industry, attracting thousands of visitors from across China and around the world including professionals in dairy production and cow breeding, buyers, government officials, experts and media.
With an exhibition area of 25,000sqm, the Expo focuses on the entire dairy production chain, from breeding and farm facilities to processing and packing equipment, ingredients, and dairy products.
NZTE's trade commissioner in Beijing, Liam Corkery, says that the Expo is an opportunity for New Zealand companies to present their solutions to potential customers in China that are actively looking for farming and milking systems expertise and technologies.
"With growing affluence, urbanisation and the liberalisation of the one child policy, demand for dairy products is forecast to continue to grow in China, and there is significant new investment in China's domestic dairy industry, including by Fonterra," says Corkery.
"New Zealand produces a lot of milk, but we can't supply the whole world. We do, however, have a wide range of systems, technology, products and expertise to help other companies become safer and more efficient.
"While dairy farming in China is quite different to dairying in New Zealand - it is typically the feedlot model - there are a number of New Zealand companies that have proven technology and systems that can help make these new scale farms safer and more efficient. The Chinese Government is also focused on improving domestic food safety, and encouraging the development of dairy farms that use modern technologies is one way they hope to achieve this."
It's in this environment of growth that NZ agritech companies visited the China World Dairy Expo to present their solutions. The New Zealand companies exhibiting at the Expo provide solutions in genetics, seed technology, food safety and assurance, milking, monitoring, weighing and herd management. They are:
• Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC)
• Tru-Test Group
• Waikato Milking Systems
• AsureQuality Limited
• Gallagher Animal Management Systems
• Zee Tags Ltd
• Fonterra
• Milktest
During the Expo, NZTE hosted a seminar and panel discussion focusing on the opportunities and challenges of deploying New Zealand farming systems to make China's dairy sector stronger.
