Fonterra's Australian arm has been named exporter of the year in the 2010 National Australia Bank agribusiness awards.The award follows the dairy processing giant's recent win at the Victorian Export Awards in the agricultural exporter category, announced
Fonterra's Australian arm has been named exporter of the year in the 2010 National Australia Bank agribusiness awards.
The award follows the dairy processing giant's recent win at the Victorian Export Awards in the agricultural exporter category, announced earlier in the month, the Weekly Times rural newspaper reported.
Fonterra Ingredients Australia managing director, Simon Bromell, said each year Fonterra collected 20 per cent of Australia's total milk production and exported more than 100,000 tonnes of dairy products to key markets in Asia and the Middle East.
"The business has made a number of strategic investments, such as our recent $A40 million ($NZ51.6m) upgrade of our Darnum Park manufacturing facility which now supplies infant formula into the East Asian market," he said. This milkpowder plant in Gippsland, Victoria, recovers and recycles water through the manufacturing process, cleaning up water extracted from the milk to save about 550,000 litres of water a day.
Mr Bromell praised the company's 1000-plus work force in Australia and the farmer suppliers who had continued to supply high-quality raw milk despite challenging farming conditions in recent seasons.
"We are looking forward to making the most of opportunities to continue to grow dairy exports in coming years," he said.
