November 3, 2010

Fonterra sets milk processing record

A new record has been set by Fonterra for the most milk processed in a day.

This is commonly referred to as the peak day. The record was set on October 27 when the co-operative's 26 sites throughout the country processed 76.8 million litres of milk.

According to Gary Romano, the managing director of Fonterra Trade and Operations, 

the new record is three million litres up on last year's record peak. He also attributed the success of the event to Fonterra's teams and plants.

Although the season began with wet weather in the Waikato and Taranaki and snow in the South Island, the recent spell of fine weather has seen a sharp increase in production on-farm.

"The rough weather we had at the start and the sharp lift in milk production over the past few weeks has meant that there have been some cases where we have been late picking up the milk from our farmers. But overall our people have done a great job in difficult conditions," said Romano.

Fonterra has been increasing their processing abilities since it was formed by investing in new technology and plants such as ED4 which is the most efficient powder plant in the world to enable them to keep ahead of milk production increases in an efficient and sustainable way.

The organisation has this growth while maintaining a strong focus on the quality of their products and the health and safety of their people and they are setting internal quality benchmarks in a number of areas as they continue to focus on improving their performance.

Romano said season-to-date, overall milk production was now slightly ahead of last year but, with the season only a third of the way through, it was too early to talk about actual production figures for the year.