Fonterra has record quarterly exports, gets creative with shipping
By Peter Kerr
Aug 20 (BusinessDesk) - Fonterra Cooperative Group, the world’s biggest exporter of dairy products, achieved record
export in the final three months of its season of 620,000 tonnes.
Its 2012 May, June and July shipments were 36% more than the same period last year, reinforcing the 2011/2012 record
milk production by its 10,500 dairy farmer members. Total milk production was up 10% on 2010/2011.
“We traditionally ship just over 450,000 tonnes at this time of year, but we’ve had a lot more product to move, and this
has meant some creative planning across the wider supply chain to manage and store the additional volumes,” said
Fonterra NZ Milk Products managing director, Gary Romano.
“For the first time since Fonterra was formed, we chartered our own break-bulk vessel to send product to the Middle
East.”
Romano said that though dairy product demand usually lifts ahead of the Islamic month of Ramadan, the demand spike was
more than expected.
“There was not enough available container capacity at that time of year,” he said. “This meant Fonterra had to charter
its own vessel to take 7,500 tonnes of products to ports in Dubai and Saudi.”
Romano said the new dairy season has now begun.
(BusinessDesk)