Monday, 17 August 2020 09:26

Chow confirmed as Fonterra China head

Written by  Sudesh Kissun
Teh-han Chow. Teh-han Chow.

Fonterra has confirmed the appointment of Teh-han Chow as chief executive officer, Greater China.

Since December 2019, Teh-han has been at the helm in an acting capacity, overseeing the co-op’s overall Greater China business, including Ingredients, Foodservice, Consumer Brands and China Farms. He replaced Christina Zhu.

Fonterra has had mixed results in China; while its ingredients and food service businesses have soared, China Farms business has struggled to make money.

The co-op has decided to offload China Farms, which carry 31,000 milking cows housed in a feedlot system and are now worth $500 million.

Over the past 10 years the co-op has invested over $1 billion in the farms with very little returns.

In its interim results announced in April, the co-op wrote down another $61m from the farms’ value. Last year it wrote down $200m.

Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell says Chow has made an impressive contribution but points out that “it’s certainly not been a steady-state”.

“Teh-han has been responsible for implementation of our new strategy across the Greater China business, and over the course of this calendar year, has shown outstanding resilience, resourcefulness and empathy in getting his team and our China business through the ongoing challenge of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

“Teh-han’s leadership has helped keep us in good shape during a very challenging set of circumstances, and I’m delighted to welcome him formally to the Fonterra management team – it’s well deserved”.

More like this

"Our" business?

OPINION: One particular bone the Hound has been gnawing on for years now is how the chattering classes want it both ways when it comes to the success of NZ's dairy industry.

Farmers' call

OPINION: Fonterra's $4.22 billion consumer business sale to Lactalis is ruffling a few feathers outside the dairy industry.

Wasted energy

OPINION: Finance Minister Nicola Willis could have saved her staff and MBIE time and effort over ‘buttergate’ recently by not playing politics with butter prices in the first place.

Featured

Fencing excellence celebrated

The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards, providing the opportunity to honour both rising talent and industry stalwarts.

B+LNZ launches AI assistant for farmers

Beef + Lamb New Zealand has launched an AI-powered digital assistant to help farmers using the B+LNZ Knowledge Hub to create tailored answers and resources for their farming businesses.

National

Machinery & Products

JDLink Boost for NZ farms

Connectivity is widely recognised as one of the biggest challenges facing farmers, but it is now being overcome through the…

New generation Defender HD11

The all-new 2026 Can-Am Defender HD11 looks likely to raise the bar in the highly competitive side-by-side category.

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Buttery prize

OPINION: Westland Milk may have won the contract to supply butter to Costco NZ but Open Country Dairy is having…

Gene Bill rumours

OPINION: The Gene Technology Bill has divided the farming community with strong arguments on both the pros and cons of…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter