Blue River Dairy, a sheep milk powder producer in New Zealand, has divested its sheep milk processing plant in Invercargill to Blueriver Nutrition HK.
The financial terms of the transaction, which has become effective 1 February, have not been disclosed.
Blueriver Nutrition HK plans to invest around $40m to add a second drier at the plant to boost production, reported Scoop.co.nz.
This investment is expected to create additional jobs in construction and production over the next five years.
Blue River founder director Keith Neylon was quoted by scoop.co.nz as saying: "Blue River has a proven record of providing sheep dairy products year round and we now want to step up to the next stage in our development.
"Significant expansion of commercial sheep dairying on Southland farms is likely from this arrangement as we are now able to fully concentrate on milk production and let Blueriver Nutrition HK focus on the finished product."
As part of the deal, Blueriver Nutrition HK will continue to process Blue River milk with Blue River.
Blueriver Nutrition HK said that its marketing networks across Asia along with Blue River's sheep milk production capabilities will help in meeting the surging demand for sheep milk powder.
Currently, Blue River aims to produce over 5,000 tons of sheep milk powder over the next few years.
Image: Blueriver Nutrition HK will continue to process Blue River milk with Blue River. Photo: courtesy of SOMMAI / freedigitalphotos.
