Fonterra update with Judith Swales

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It's a hectic time for Fonterra farmers as calving season continues, but that hasn't stopped the co-op's milk production for the 2020/21 season says Judith Swales

"Calving is underway and our farmers are very busy," Fonterra's CEO for Asia Pacific told The Country Sport Breakfast's Lee Piper.

Fonterra's latest global dairy update showed the co-op's milk collection in New Zealand for the first month of the 2020/21 season at 14.7 million kgMS which was up 2.7 per cent on the same month last year, Swales said.

"I think we'd say that's a pretty solid start to the FY21 campaign."

As for Australia, Fonterra's milk collection there reached 107.8 million kgMS for the full 2019/20 season to 30 June 2020, which was "a pretty decent result," Swales said.

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"For our Australian business we have all the milk we need to keep our factories running efficiently so we're not driving for heaps more milk which takes the pressure off."

Meanwhile, Fonterra welcomed a new member to the Asia-Pacific team.

Susanne Arfelt Rajamand is now the co-op's managing director for South East Asia, a market that has "a lot of opportunities," Swales said.

"Susanne's really there to help us harness these opportunities ... she's worked with the likes of McCormick, Unilever and Disney and she has actually lived in Singapore for 12 years ... so she knows and understands the region."

Also in today's interview: Swales talked about how Fonterra was dealing with lockdown restrictions for Covid-19 in New Zealand and Australia.