Milk Powder Prices Prop Up Farmgate Milk Price
Milk powder prices are keeping farmgate prices up, helping processors offset the dip in milk fat prices.
The product is processed and packaged at Fonterra's 2-year-old UHT plant at Waitoa.
"Technical experts tell us the cream in these one litre containers is the best cream in the world in terms of quality. That is a real selling point for us in that market," says Muir.
One litre milks and creams produced at Waitoa are also sold for home use in China and Asia. Some product is in gift pack form sold in China and based around the quality of New Zealand milk, he says. The gift pack is a big seller at certain times of the year like Chinese New Year.
Waitoa also produces a range of single use products that are going into the same market in different varieties. There's standard, flavoured and high protein milks. Most of the single serve products are aimed at children. The plant also produces the standard single serve milk for New Zealand's Milk for Schools programmes which provide milk daily for school children.
Waitoa has five production lines in the plant running up to three at any one time.
