A positive end to a challenging year for Fonterra

Photo / File

Content brought to you by Fonterra.

Covid-19 has made 2020 a challenging year, but Fonterra has ended it positively, the co-op's chief operating office Fraser Whineray says.

Fonterra's impressive performance was due to a collaborative international effort across the co-op, Whineray told The Country Sport Breakfast's Lee Piper.

"Whilst the results are very positive there's been a lot of effort with people within the co-operative, our farmers and beyond to achieve that."

As a result, Whineray said Fonterra was looking forward to a "really clean run" at 2021 and "seeing what we can achieve ... hopefully without anything worse than what we've had to endure this year, with respect to Covid and global disruption."

Next year Fonterra would keep managing the risks around Covid-19, along with continuing to implement its strategies, driving the milk price and working to share New Zealand milk with customers around the world.

"Hopefully we can continue to make gains which we've enjoyed seeing in 2020," Whineray said.

Listen below:

Biogas study

Meanwhile, Fonterra is collaborating with Beca, EECA and Firstgas Group on a study to assess the potential of raw biogas as a possible substitute for natural gas.

There was a chance biogas could be refined and injected into existing gas pipelines, Whineray said.

This meant gas users could reduce their carbon emissions without having to change out boilers or appliances, which was "a positive solution which doesn't involve recreating an entirely new ecosystem," Whineray said.

Biogas came from decomposing organic material that could be found in landfills, wastewater treatment plants and in food manufacturing.

The decomposed material was then upgraded to biomethane which was a direct replacement for natural gas.

"Fonterra has actually got the largest anaerobic digestor ... in the southern hemisphere at our Tirau plant - so we make a lot of methane there - and we use that to help fire the energy for the plant to make steam and process the milk." Whineray explained.

"So we've got some experience there and we're looking forward to sharing that with our partners in this study."