Fonterra Whareroa sets cheese record, wins top award
Fonterra Whareroa wrapped up a successful season with a record-breaking cheese production volume and several gongs at the co-op's annual Best Site Cup awards.
Fonterra has started supplying fresh milk to Australian supermarket chain Woolworths from its new multi-million plant in Cobden, western Victoria.
The plant was commissioned last week and will supply Woolworths Select own-brand milk in Victoria for 10 years.
Fonterra Australia managing director Judith Swales says the plant starts a new era at the Cobden site – “an important milestone for our Australian business and a key pillar of our strategy”.
The plant expansion will generate 50 new jobs and benefit the local community and the co-op’s farmers. It will process up to 100 million litres of milk each year.
The long-term agreement with Woolworths provides certainty for our farmers that they will have a home for their milk, says Swales.
“Everyone involved in the Cobden expansion has done an exceptional job readying the site.”
Over the next four weeks the plant will increase production of Woolworths Select milk for sale across Victoria. It will be officially launched in September.
Australian dairy farmers have welcomed the commissioning of the plant.
Australian Dairy Farmers (ADF) president Noel Campbell says he expects the benefits of the long term contract to flow through to the farmers’ bottom line.
“The duration of Woolworth’s commitment with Fonterra Australia is welcome. Retail contracts with this sort of longevity provide milk processors with the security and certainty they require to invest in the industry’s capability and growth.
“The ten year contract also gives Fonterra the option to provide longer term contracts to their suppliers. Farmers are always more willing to invest onfarm when they have a certain destination for their product.”
Campbell says ADF would continue to monitor farm gate returns for farmers supplying fresh milk contracts and he encouraged all Australians to buy branded products to support Australian dairy farmers.
We're working through it, and we'll get to it.
The debate around New Zealand's future in the Paris Agreement is heating up.
A technical lab manager for Apata, Phoebe Scherer, has won the Bay of Plenty 2025 Young Grower regional title.
Following heavy rain which caused flooding in parts of Nelson-Tasman and sewerage overflows in Marlborough, the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme (IFSO Scheme) is urging homeowners and tenants to be cautious when cleaning up and to take the right steps to support claims.
Newly elected Federated Farmers meat and wool group chair Richard Dawkins says he will continue the great work done his predecessor Toby Williams.
Hosted by ginger dynamo Te Radar, the Fieldays Innovation Award Winners Event put the spotlight on the agricultural industry's most promising ideas.
OPINION: It's official, Fieldays 2025 clocked 110,000 visitors over the four days.
OPINION: The Federated Farmers rural advocacy hub at Fieldays has been touted as a great success.