Fonterra Eltham boosts cheese production to meet rising demand
Fonterra’s manufacturing site in Eltham is ramping up its cheese production to keep up with rising demand ahead of the upcoming season.
The site is upgrading its production lines for processed cheese and adding a new shift for its Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) Mozzarella. These are some of Fonterra’s key foodservice products, topping billions of burgers and pizzas each year.
Eltham Site Operations Manager Kelvin Gray says the additional capacity will allow the Co-op to allocate more milk to its growing Foodservice channel.
“We’re adding about 6000 metric tonnes of IQF Mozzarella to our annual volume with this new shift – that’s enough mozzarella to top over 40 million pizzas.
“We’re also investing in upgrades for our processed cheese slice lines, so we’ll able produce cheese for an extra 200 million more burgers each year,” says Gray.
Fonterra Eltham specialises in producing cheese products for the Co-op’s Foodservice business. Cheese products from Eltham are exported to more than 50 countries worldwide and are trusted by some of the world’s largest restaurant brands such as McDonald’s or Pizza Hut.
Gray says the demand is surging across Asia, predominantly in markets like China, Southeast Asia and North Asia.
“Our customers are expecting strong demand on the back of growing population and urbanisations.
“There is a rising appetite for convenient meal options from young consumers with busy lifestyles, driving more people to visit fast-food stores and quick-service restaurants more frequently.”
We’re adding about 6000 metric tonnes of IQF Mozzarella to our annual volume with this new shift – that’s enough mozzarella to top over 40 million pizzas.
The number of quick-service restaurants across Asia Pacific is projected to reach 5.3 million by 2027, as global restaurant chains rapidly expand their footprint in key markets across the region.
Last year, Fonterra announced a $150 million investment for a new cool store at its Whareroa site to support the growing volume for the Co-op's Foodservice and Ingredients channels. Construction for this has started and is forecast to take three years to complete.
It has been a standout season for Fonterra Eltham, which recently took home two awards - the Best Specialty Site and Customer Award – at the Co-op’s annual Best Site Cup event.
The site team was celebrated for their commitment to product quality and compliance, which positively impacted customer satisfaction.
“We’ve had some great achievements this year, including being named as McDonald’s supplier of the year and winning a gold medal at the International Cheese and Dairy Award for one of our Slice-on-Slice cheese products.
These awards are a huge recognition for the effort the team has put in and a nice way to wrap up the season,” adds Gray. Find out more about Fonterra’s Foodservice business here.