Fonterra has published the details of its third dairy farm in China, nine months after said it was looking at plans to add to its network in the country.
In October, the world’s largest dairy exporter announced plans for its first farm in Yutian County in the north-eastern province of Hebei, its second in China. It also said it was looking at setting up a second in the county.
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Today (19 July), Fonterra said the second farm – dubbed Fonterra Yutian Farm Two – would be developed on over 40 hectares of land in the city of Tangshan, 9km from its first in the county.
The company plans to sell milk from the farm to local and international dairy manufacturers in China.
Fonterra will spend CNY260m (US$40.2m) on the new farm, which will house around 3,200 milking cows and is expected to produce around 28m litres of milk per year. Construction will start in November and is expected to be completed in late 2012.
Peter Moore, COO of Fonterra’s international farming ventures, said “good progress” had been made on the New Zealand company’s first farm in Yutian County.
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By GlobalData“We transferred the first 1,140 heifers to Fonterra Yutian Farm in June and we expect another 3,000 to be delivered from New Zealand in October. We are on track to start milking in November this year,” Moore said.
Fonterra’s first farm in China was set up in 2007 in Hangu in the eastern Tianjin, a city in the north of the country. Moore insisted that farm had shown Fonterra could “successfully produce high-quality local milk profitably”.
Philip Turner, the president of Fonterra’s operations in China, said today he expects demand for milk to triple in the country over the next decade.
Last month, Fonterra announced plans to issue a bond in Chinese renminbi to support the expansion of its operations in the country.
