By PHILIPPA STEVENSON
Fonterra has just sold its first organic product as Zespri reaps kudos for its longer-term effort in the developing sector.
Organics category manager Rick Carmont, of Fonterra subsidiary NZMP, said 40 tonnes of organic cheese, mostly cheddar, had been produced at its Hautapu factory, near Cambridge, since last month.
Most of it would be sold in New Zealand.
The company was also producing 14 tonnes of organic skim and wholemilk powder every second day from its Waitoa factory, near Morrinsville, which had also gone on to the domestic market. NZMP would target local and Australian demand and anticipated increasing production to 400 tonnes of cheese and 1000 tonnes of milkpowder annually. The rate of growth would largely be governed by farmers' ability to supply organic milk, Carmont said.
Milk was being collected from 13 organically certified farms in the North Island but so far 66 farms had been identified as either certified organic or interested in converting from conventional production. Farms were being assessed and added to the collection base each week, he said.
Carmont said the organics market was relatively small but the outlook was positive and dairy ingredients would command a significant price premium over standard products. Prices needed to be higher because of the high cost of separating organic from conventional product during processing, he said.
Meanwhile, the country's biggest organic exporter, Zespri, has been named organic exporter of the year for its successful marketing of $25 million worth of organic kiwifruit.
In the awards run by Organic Products Exporters of New Zealand (Openz), and sponsored by Trade New Zealand, organic honey and beeswax exporter Waitaki Apiaries of Kurow, North Otago, was runner-up to Zespri.
Herb and colostrum product exporter NZ Vitalife, of Bay of Plenty, was named new organic exporter of the year. Heinz Watties Australasia's canned organic corn kernels won the product category.
Heinz Watties is a pioneer organic exporter which developed its first lines of frozen organic vegetables in 1991 primarily for the Japan market. Later it expanded into canned products and babyfood.
