Fonterra has received approval from it board of directors to establish a NZ$235m milk powder plant at its Pahiatua site in the Manawatu, which will enable it to process an additional 2.4 million liters each day.
The announcement follows the opening of the co-operative's largest milk powder drier at its site at Darfield in Canterbury.
Featuring the latest energy-efficient processing technology, the drier will be the first in the country to reuse its own condensate.
Fonterra NZ Operations director Robert Spurway said that the co-operative's continued investment in milk powder driers was to meet the growing demand for dairy nutrition globally and demonstrated its strategy of optimizing its New Zealand milk business.
"This new drier in Pahiatua will help drive greater efficiencies across our manufacturing footprint. Last season we set a new record for the most milk collected in one day and overall milk production has been increasing by roughly three per cent each year."
"Our expansion at Pahiatua will ensure that Fonterra has the capacity to meet this demand and to process the continued growth of milk supply in New Zealand," Spurway added.
Construction of the drier and infrastructure is set to start in mid-December with the first milk powder from the new drier slated to roll out by September 2015.
Earlier this week, the government released an inquiry report into Fonterra's whey protein concentrate botulism scare, which stated that the incident was not associated with any failure in the regulatory system in the dairy sector.
Commenting on the report, CEO Theo Spierings said, "The report and its recommendations will help further strengthen New Zealand's robust food safety regulatory systems.
"This independent endorsement of the quality of New Zealand's food safety framework is a welcome contribution following the WPC80 precautionary recall."
