Milk powder deal helps war on poverty

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON

Mexico President Vicente Fox has capitalised on the launch of a New Zealand-made fortified wholemilk powder for his programme against poverty.

The milk powder, enriched with iron, zinc, and the B vitamin folic acid, was developed this year at Fonterra's Hawera plant for an annual 38,000-tonne contract with Mexican state agency Liconsa.

Bob Major, global director sales marketing and strategy for Fonterra subsidiary NZMP, said Liconsa was one of the world's biggest milk powder buyers and the contract represented about a quarter of its yearly purchases. It was a big contract by international standards in which 10,000-tonne lots of product was more common.

The deal was returning "comfortably" above the international commodity price for wholemilk powder, said Major, who added there was excitement in NZMP at developing a new product.

The fortified powder, named Tenutre, which translates as "nutrify you", is to be distributed to children, the elderly and pregnant women among Mexico's poor. Liconsa has 8500 retail outlets across the country to distribute the subsidised milk powder and other products.

It follows a national nutritional study which revealed high rates of inadequate growth and anaemia among Mexican children. At least 27 per cent of Mexico's 101 million population live below the poverty line.

At the product's recent launch, President Fox said Mexico could not afford to lose the strategic battle to feed and give adequate nutrition to its children.

"To do otherwise is not only to play with the present but also with the future of our country."

Among the more than 700 people at the launch was Craig Wilson, NZMP's general manager in Mexico. NZMP was the first and only supplier ready with a fortified product for the Mexican market and could be proud of its response time from concept to the market, he said.

Liconsa approached its preferred suppliers, including NZMP, this year to assist its technical development team with a fortified wholemilk product.

It visited New Zealand in March and two options were developed.

Production trials began in April followed by evaluation and storage trials between May and August in both New Zealand and Mexico.

Major said Tenutre was a new product but had been developed from existing intellectual property. The most difficult aspect had been to incorporate iron without producing an unpleasant taste from its reaction with milk fats.

In her speech at the launch, Mexico Minister of Social Development Josefina Vasquez paid tribute to NZMP's research and development capability.