Friday, March 29, 2024

New powder plant ready to test

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A fledgling milk powder blending business is on track to export specialist infant formula around the world next year.
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After two years of development the New Zealand Dairy Collaborative’s $20 million blending and packaging facility in Ashburton will test its canning line before Christmas.

The 51% Kiwi-owned company will complete the installation of its equipment this week and roll off thousands of test cans filled with infant formula by year-end as part of its start-up and registration process.

The plant, built by Chinese company Fineboon, now a 49% shareholder, will be filling export cans in February.

Fineboon, China’s major infant formula milk powder brand owner, has just commissioned a plant in Mongolia.

The NZ business was sparked by new Chinese infant formula regulation that dictates any one milk powder plant can supply only three brands in China.

Fineboon wanted NZ packed-powder from a plant that would produce a Chinese label from NZ.

Former Ashburton mayor and NZ Dairy Collaborative shareholder-director Angus McKay said it’s a rigorous and exhaustive start-up regime and before the first order leaves the plant every step in the process will have been independently quality checked in a processes triple-tested by independent assessors.

“They want to know it’s safe, it’s highest possible quality, it’s traceable and it hasn’t been tampered with.”

The test cans will be discarded.

McKay said the firm blends dried milk powder with vitamins and minerals to meet individual client specifications.

“It’s quite a simple business really but what we do is of utmost precision.”

The company will deal only with powder.

“What you see in the plant and tower is not a drier, it’s a blender. We don’t deal at all with liquid products. We cannot take fresh milk on site,” McKay said.

Driving operations is general manager Brad Harden who has an extensive background in the industry, initially with Fonterra then a 10-year stint at Synlait.

“It’s an exciting opportunity to start up a plant from a green field with such potential to grow the business once it gets up and running,” Harden said.

Initially the plant will start with just one packing room rolling off 30 cans a minute with a second room enabling capacity to increase up to 70 cans a minute.

Harden said it’s been a long lead into start-up with the Chinese making sure they have a safe food supply and the Primary Industries Ministry making sure all systems are robust and sustainable.

There’s six months of paperwork for orders once the cans are filled before they can leave the plant for export.

While the first export cans will be filled in February it will be June before they head offshore 

“For that reason we need to have a large storage space.”

Production will begin with one shift but eventually the plant could run up to four shifts.

While initially blending dried bovine powder, goat and sheep powders are on the radar.

“It all depends on the client and orders we get.

“If they want bovine we do that. Goat will be a definite and if there’s demand we’ll do sheep as we can,” Harden said.

McKay said “We expect adult formula will also be on retail shelves next year.”

While there’s potential for expansion in the future Harden said it’s not likely to include a niche drier.

“While that’s one thing the South Island is lacking, a niche drier for smaller quantities, we have got enough on our plate,” Harden said.

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