Why Aussie cheese lovers are good news for Fonterra farmers

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Kiwis know Mainland is a well-loved brand in New Zealand, but it's also becoming increasingly popular across the ditch, says CEO for Asia Pacific at Fonterra, Judith Swales.

The co-op's Mainland team in Australia was thrilled to reach a big milestone this week, Swales told The Country Sport Breakfast's Lee Piper.

"The brand achieved 100 million dollars - Aussie dollars that is - in annual retail sales within the cheese category."

When that achievement was combined with Mainland spreads, the brand was now a AU$167 million master brand in Australia, Swales said.

"It's a great home for New Zealand milk. We are big players in cheese category in Australia – we now hold three of the top four cheese brands in the country."

Over the last 18 months, Fonterra had been focusing on the highly profitable and growing segment of adult cheese snacking, Swales said.

Listen below:

"The snacking category in totality in Aussie is worth about 26 billion dollars; and while cheese snacking currently accounts for less than 1 per cent of this ... it's relatively untapped and has got a lot of potential."

In fact, In the last year, 185,000 more households purchased Fonterra's adult snacking
products and Mainland had expanded its snacking range to capitalise on this trend.

"We've launched something called Mainland Grazing Collection," Swales said.

"So we're pairing Mainland's aged cheddar with gourmet crackers and accompaniments like handcrafted caramelised fig jam plus cranberries and pepitas."

Fonterra had big plans for Mainland this year, and the co-op hoped to see this value keep climbing in FY22, Swales said.

Also in today's interview: Swales looked into a recent Rabobank report which stated that dairy exports into Southeast Asia were set to boom over the next decade. She also gave an update on how spring was shaping up for Aussie farmers.