Chinese desserts served at the opening included cucumber yogurt, mango pomelo sago and strawberry coconut mousse.
Fonterra has opened its revamped application centre in Guangzhou, in an effort to support its growing foodservice business in southern China.
The updated centre will see the test and development of innovative products and applications unique to the ‘fast-moving’ China market.
Fonterra claims the centre is more ‘multi-purpose’ than the previous centre, featuring different zones for various products including a whole new area dedicated to beverages.
The decision to expand the centre was based on growth in Guangzhou, part of the ‘Greater Bay Area’ region in China, with the team outgrowing the existing premises.
Fonterra’s Guangzhou Application Centre will now be staffed by ten chefs, who will serve customers across nine provinces. The premise will also enable the co-operative’s teams to hold more than 70 large demos and 150 small demos each year.
“This updated application centre is a great enabler for our Greater China business, by helping us bring our products to market faster and better,” said Justin Dai, VP for Foodservice Fonterra Greater China.
Fonterra’s other application centres are located in Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu, with plans to open another in Wuhan this year.
“We work really closely with the application centres to understand what customers want and then get stuck into researching and developing products that will match the customer’s needs,” said Mark Piper, director of category, strategy and innovation at Fonterra.
He added: “Through Covid-19, teams at our R&D centre here in New Zealand have worked closely with the China team to bring some exciting new products to market including: cheese lollipops, different types of yogurts and three new ambient cream products. When it comes to foodservice and consumer products, both are dynamic markets. Competition is fierce and we need to stay ahead of the game.”
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