A few factors led to Fonterra's success in China, including an opportunity to be "a little bit more aggressive in pricing, as we saw the milk price was heading up," Chow said.
A quick economic recovery from Covid-19 also boosted the need for healthy and nutrition-rich foods in the China market, and Fonterra had made the most of this trend.
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"Our teams across the business have been focusing on the sales of high-value dairy products, such as cheese and probiotics in the form of new products and innovative applications," Chow said.
For example, the co-op's Consumer Brands team launched two single-serve sachet products under the Anmum and Anchor brands in April, with further innovations on the way.
"We're expecting to roll out more Brands products in Q4, such as shredded mozzarella cheese, Anchor vegetable and fruit Probiotic Milk Powder and Anchor Lactoferrin High Protein Milk Powder," Chow said.
Fonterra's Strategic Accounts team were also focusing on new applications, which included expanding the uses of Anchor whipping cream, to offer new tastes in tea macchiato and milk jelly, a product enjoyed at afternoon tea.
The team had also mixed various kinds of cheese - such as natural cheese, cream cheese and mozzarella - into egg tarts, pizza and tapas, Chow said.
"So they brought new cheese products with a rich taste to consumers and customers."
Meanwhile, Fonterra's Ingredients business was busy developing new applications for high-value ingredients like protein, cheese and probiotics.
"[They're used] in products such as bottled meal replacement, protein soup, cheese protein balls, string cheese and enriched milk," Chow said.
Finally, the China Foodservice business was once again the big performer in the third-quarter results, contributing $93 million of the co-op's EBIT growth.
The Anchor Food Professionals brand, saw rising sales of high-value products, and the team also rolled out 106 new applications across dining, beverage and bakery channels in the third quarter.
A new city expansion project meant products and services now reached four more cities, Chow said.
"This increases the total number of cities we now cover in China to 376 - so that's a pretty big number."
"It's exciting to see our Greater China business continuing to grow, and New Zealand dairy reaching even more consumers in China."
