Fonterra Milk for Kiwis Programme

For some New Zealanders this initiative will bring back memories of the Government programme which operated in New Zealand primary schools between 1937 and 1967.

Dec 16 2011 --- Fonterra CEO Theo Spierings announced a "Milk for Kiwis" plan to make milk more affordable and more available to all New Zealanders.

Mr Spierings says New Zealand has the potential to be the dairy nutrition capital of the world, and this should start at home with Kiwis drinking milk.

"When I took over this role I made a promise to take a fresh look at how we could make milk more accessible in New Zealand," says Mr Spierings.

Milk is an important building block for good nutrition. We want Kiwi kids to grow up drinking milk because it is good for them.

We are looking to introduce a Fonterra Milk for Schools programme. We want all New Zealand primary school children to have access to dairy nutrition every school day.

For some New Zealanders this initiative will bring back memories of the Government programme which operated in New Zealand primary schools between 1937 and 1967. We'll ensure this time that the milk is cold and tastes great.

We know milk offers a unique combination of nutrients which are essential for children's growth and development. "The New Zealand Dietary Guidelines recommend school children consume at least two to three servings every day of milk or dairy," Mr Spierings says.

To test logistics of the Fonterra Milk for Schools programme, the co-operative will launch a regional pilot for primary schools in Northland, covering 110 schools and 14,000 children. The pilot will commence during the first term of 2012.

We are excited by this and early indications are the local Northland community is excited too. It will be a voluntary programme for schools to opt into so we can get a fix on likely demand from schools for such a programme.

"We don't want kids having to drink warm milk in summer like the old days, so we will look at installing refrigerators in schools, and also explore options for recycling the milk packaging," Mr Spierings says.

Results from the Northland pilot will be monitored during the first three terms of the 2012 school year with the intention of progressing with a nationwide programme for the start of the new school year in 2013.

Mr Spierings said Fonterra would welcome support from other partners for a nationwide programme, including the Government. He also said that Fonterra was continuing to review the price of milk in New Zealand.

Our motivation is to have more New Zealanders drinking more milk because it is important for basic nutrition. To achieve this, we have to make it available and affordable.

In recent years we have seen a major lift in international dairy prices which effectively doubled in 18 months. This has pushed up the cost of milk prices locally and we have seen consumption decline, with New Zealanders drinking less milk.

Traditionally milk consumption in New Zealand has been increasing around 1-2 per cent per year but it is currently declining by a similar rate.

"We are exploring a range of options to turn around the consumption decline by making milk more consistently affordable and will report back in the first quarter of next year," Mr Spierings says.

In another move to make milk more available to all New Zealanders, Fonterra will trial milk sales in its RD1 rural supply stores.
Anchor is our flagship brand and it makes sense to have it available in the 64 RD1 rural stores around New Zealand which we now own 100 per cent.

"Initially we will be focusing on smaller towns that don't have supermarkets nearby. From here we can measure the demand and decide whether to roll this out further," Mr Spierings says.