'Grass to glass' virtual tour brings Fonterra to the people

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Fonterra has found an innovative way to bring the co-op closer to its customers around the world through a virtual "Grass to Glass" tour of its supply chain.

The tour was developed over the last 18 months and showcased the co-op's sustainability credentials, dairy innovation and the value of New Zealand milk, Mike Cronin, Managing Director Co-operative Affairs at Fonterra said.

Fonterra had a long history of hosting overseas customers who were keen to understand more about the co-op, Cronin told the Country Sport Breakfast's Brian Kelly.

"Customers from all around the world have always come down to New Zealand and had a really good look and gone on-farm to find out where their products are coming from."

This had been difficult in the past few years, Cronin said.

"Good old Covid put an end to that of course, like a lot of things. So we thought ... instead of them coming down, how do we take Fonterra to them?"

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The platform, called Visit Fonterra, has been live for nearly two weeks and has had over 1200 users view it from 46 countries.

These were already impressive numbers, Cronin said.

"Usually in a year, we get 1700 visitors down here so that's good traction."

Customers were spending around seven to eight minutes on the site, which was a "good length of time," Cronin said.

"It maybe doesn't sound like too much [time] but people would go on our [company] website and spend [only] a minute or so."

A virtual tour also saved customers significant costs in both money and time, Cronin said.

Fonterra planned to expand the experience beyond the port, to show the co-op's global reach and how products were used in each market.

Custom versions for employees were also in development, with the potential to help with future recruitment.

Although the platform had been successful so far, it wasn't a replacement for physical visits, which Fonterra hoped would resume soon, Cronin said.

However, until those face to face interactions return, he encouraged people to jump online and check out visit.Fonterra.com.