Saturday, 21 December 2024 16:55

New UHT plant construction starts

Written by  Sudesh Kissun
Fonterra employees, community representatives, and local iwi celebrated the start of the project. Fonterra employees, community representatives, and local iwi celebrated the start of the project.

Construction is underway at Fonterra’s new UHT cream plant at Edendale, Southland following a groundbreaking ceremony recently.

Fonterra employees, community representatives, and local iwi celebrated the start of a project with cultural advisor Matu Coleman-Clark blessing the site and project team before the turning of the first sod.

The new UHT plant, which will meet growing demand across Asia is scheduled to begin production in August 2026, initially delivering over 50 million litres of UHT cream annually, with plans to more than double that capacity by 2030. Seventy new roles will be created along with those generated through the construction phase. 

General manager operations, Lower South Island, Andrew Johns, shared his enthusiasm with the group at the event, saying that starting construction marks the first chapter in a long-planned project.

“It’s fantastic to see all the planning and hard mahi come together, and we’re eager to watch the build take shape in the coming months. The new plant is a big investment in our future here at Edendale, and we’re looking forward to seeing the positive impact on our community as a whole as construction progresses.”

Around $150 million dollars will be invested in the expansion which is part of the co-operative’s strategy to grow further value by expanding its Foodservice business in and beyond China and increasing production capacity for high-value products.

More like this

Aussie farmers get A$8.60/kgMS as opening milk price

Australian dairy farmers supplying Fonterra are getting an opening weighted average milk price of A$8.60/kgMS for the new season or around NZ$9.26/kgMS -  NZ74c less than New Zealand suppliers, based on the current exchange rate.

Featured

LIC Space folds for good

Farmer co-operative LIC has closed its satellite-backed pasture measurement platform – Space.

Editorial: Time for common sense

OPINION: The case of four Canterbury high country stations facing costly and complex consent hearing processes highlights the dilemma facing the farming sector as the country transitions into a replacement for the Resource Management Act (RMA).

National

DairyNZ Farmers Forum underway

Over 300 farmers and rural professionals have gathered in Hamilton for the first DairyNZ Farmers Forum for this year.

Machinery & Products

Shearing legend hooked on CanAm

Sir David Fagan, world-renowned competitive sheep shearer with 642 shearing titles worldwide and a knighthood to his name, now runs…

50 years of tractor pull

This year, the Fieldays Tractor Pull, in association with PTS Logistics, mark a major milestone – 50 years of crowd-thrilling…

The Wrangler's birthday bash

It's the Wrangler Limited’s 30th birthday and to celebrate the milestone a prototype of the E Series Wrangler - a…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Free speech

OPINION: The Free Speech Union is taking this one too far.

Drug survey

OPINION: New national data from The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA), a leading workplace drug tester, shows methamphetamine (meth) use is…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter