February 09, 2018
Kawerau Dairy seeks point of difference
Innovation and organics are at the heart of a new dairy factory to be built in the Bay of Plenty.
Kawerau Dairy is a joint venture between a dozen Maori land trusts, Maori business development agency Poutama Trust and Cedenco, a subsidiary of Japanese food company Imanaka.
Project manager and Poutama chief executive Richard Jones says work will start next month on the $32 million first stage of the project, which involves building dryers and evaporators to turn various types of milk into high value products, using steam from the nearby Ngati Tuwharetoa Geothermal Assets plant.
While the bulk of production will be cow’s milk from shareholder farms, the firm also wants to tap into the lucrative organic market using milk from the Organic Dairy Hub.
"That’s an existing group of about 30 farmsdoing full organic dairying. Initially they will supply the organic milk to us and then some of our shareholder farms have indicated over time they will consider converting to organics as well," Mr Jones says.
Stage two of the project will be to build a dryer to process sheep and goat milk and even milk made from plants like oats and peas.
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