NZ Dairy Industry To Enhance Export Products
NEW ZEALAND - Dairy companies will now have the opportunity to research and develop high-value products, with the construction of New Zealand's first and only independent product development spray dryer, at the Waikato Innovation Park.
15 July 2011
2 minute read
Minister of Agriculture, David Carter said: "“With annual dairy exports sitting at just over $12 billion, the New Zealand dairy industry is one of the country’s largest export earners. The majority of our dairy exports are ingredients such as milk powder, butter and cheese. New Zealand dominates the world’s dairy commodities markets – that’s our core strength and we will keep doing this well."
He said that the spray dryer will give dairy companies an opportunity to research and develop high value products, which is very difficult to do in large, commercial factories.
The spray dryer is the Waikato component of the Ministry of Economic Developmentsponsored New Zealand Food Innovation Network. Waikato Innovation Park’s parent company, Innovation Waikato Ltd, has formed a subsidiary – New Zealand Food Innovation Waikato Ltd – to own and operate the dryer.
CEO of the subsidiary, Derek Fairweather, says the spray dryer “will initially be set up to allow companies to research, develop and manufacture new milk powders. However, the medium-term strategy is to expand the plant’s capability to manufacture infant formula.”
“What might be surprising to some is that most infant formulas sold in the Asia Pacific region contain New Zealand milk powder. But, sadly, it’s the formula manufacturers who are capturing most of the value of our milk. Infant formula delivered to the back door of a supermarket is worth ten times as much as our milk powder exports at the border," said Tim Morris, Director of Coriolis Limited.
Mr Fairweather says each of these prospective spray dryer users has the potential to develop export markets worth hundreds of millions of dollars to New Zealand.
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