New Zealand-based Fonterra has announced its plan to further expand its Waitoa UHT site to meet the growing demand for its products.
The site currently has production capacity of more than 80,000 cartons of UHT milk and cream every hour.
In order to meet the growing demand, the firm intends to install and commission a new line by the end of this year. It will increase the site’s capacity to produce up to 45,000 cartons of one liter UHT products every hour.
This will be the third new line to be installed by the firm at the site since the last 12 months with each line having production capacity of 15,000 packs per hour, Fonterra said.
Fonterra COO global operations Robert Spurway said the Waitoa UHT expansion project is a result of the success of the Co-operative’s consumer and foodservice business in the country.
“Exports of UHT cream in particular have grown rapidly - more than doubling in the past two seasons.
“Our $162m investment in UHT production at Waitoa over the past five years is part of our strategy to continue to move more of our farmers’ milk into these higher returning products.
“The investment has also created 150 new jobs at the Waitoa site and this has been a real boost for the local community.”
Upon completion of the expansion work, total processing capacity of the site will be more than 250 million liters of UHT cream and milk annually.
