Fonterra has completed work on a new mozzarella plant at its site in New Zealand, which will allow it to produce enough of the cheese to top more than 300m pizzas every year.
The site expansion has added 25 new jobs and will allow the Auckland-based dairy cooperative to supply restaurants across China, Asia and the Middle East. Fonterra’s premium performance mozzarella is characterised by its stretch, excellent and melt and New Zealand buttery flavour, the company added.
Clandeboye site manager Steve McKnight said: “We’re seeing the popularity of cheese really take off in Asia, so the timing of this upgrade couldn’t be better. To meet orders from that market, we will be producing cheese 24 hours a day, making use of our new lines and taking winter milk from our farmers in Canterbury, Southland and Otago.”
Fonterra managing director of global operations Robert Spurway added: “The expansion at Clandeboye is a great example of our V3 strategy in action.
“Foodservice products such as cheese give a high value on return and, thanks to our strength in research and development, we’re able to cut months off the production time of this mozzarella to deliver on our velocity proposition. The additional capacity will bring volume to that equation.”
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