Synlait targets to become independent cow-to-customer dairy exporter

15/04/05 New Zealand, Synlait Investments Ltd, one of the country’s largest dairy farming operations, is to become an independent cow-to-customer dairy exporter from the 2007/8 dairy season, its Board of Directors have announced.

Synlait Chairman Dr John Penno, along with directors Ben Dingle, Juliet Maclean and Hon. Ruth Richardson, advised Synlait’s current milk processor, Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd, and the Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Jim Sutton, of the company’s plans.

Smaller, independent dairy exporters such as Synlait were envisaged by the Government’s Dairy Industry Restructuring Act 2001 which established Fonterra as the dominant player in the industry.

Dr Penno said Synlait, which currently produces more than 40 million litres of milk a year from 8,500 cows on 2,800 hectares of prime Canterbury land, now had the critical mass to begin the next stage of its development which would see it become New Zealand’s first genuine cow-to-customer dairy export company, focussed on exporting ingredients to the world’s leading food manufacturers, particularly in the functional foods category, with which it had already established key relationships.