Our stories

Fonterra’s Health and Wellbeing team have proven they’re industry-leading, winning the WorkSafe New Zealand best initiative to address a work-related health risk at the New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards.

With one and a half decades of experience in cheese making, Cathy Lang knows her stuff when it comes to cheese and is excited to be involved in NZ Trade and Enterprise’s international “Made with Care” campaign.

It might be whitebait season right now but a community in Northland is more set on making new homes for the silvery-white fish than catching them.

Lacking motivation? COVID getting you down? Let Jackson Flinn be your inspiration.

Fonterra has recently signed up as a foundation donor partner to the newly created New Zealand Food Network.

When COVID-19 first hit New Zealand’s shores Fonterra stepped up to help make hand sanitiser and some of its employees volunteered their time to make face masks. Now the Co-op’s offering another hand – this time to help develop a vaccine.

When Dave Sattler went for a weekend climb up his beloved maunga, Mt Taranaki, he never expected to he’d have to take part in a rescue involving underwear.

As parts of New Zealand still face a long recovery from a severe drought, it’s important now more than ever to stay focussed on our water goals.

When Sanjeev Kumar moved to New Zealand from India as a student five years ago he never imagined he’d end up driving Fonterra tankers around Bay of Plenty, “I love my job! This has been a life-changing experience for me”.

Rewarding an all-round good guy. Combining first-class care for the environment, his animals and local community has seen Whanganui farmer Chris Davison rewarded in a very rare way.

Every waking moment for Invercargill farmer Reza Abdul-Jabbar is spent either farming or mucking in to help his community.

Farmer, personal trainer, mental health advocate and self-confessed ‘energizer bunny’ - just a few of the many ways to describe Felicity Clark.

When COVID-19 ground his eight-year career as a pilot for Air New Zealand to a sudden halt, Henry Lambert decided to turn it into an opportunity for a complete change - to farming.

Hawke’s Bay farmers Nick and Nicky Dawson have led a clean sweep for Fonterra suppliers at the 2020 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards.

Hilary Barry’s one of New Zealand’s most well-known and best-loved TV hosts, co-starring alongside Jeremy Wells, every weeknight right after the six o’clock news – on Seven Sharp.

As lockdown restrictions took hold in New Zealand and the rest of the world, businesses across the globe fought to secure masks – the best thing since hand sanitiser in the fight against COVID-19.

Small to medium-sized businesses to be paid in 10 days.

‘Meat The Need’ was founded by South Island farmers Wayne Langford and Siobhan O'Malley.

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Ngāi Tahu Farm Manager Ash-Leigh Campbell has been named as the recipient of the 2020 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year award.

How one Fonterra employee is sewing up to 100 face masks on her days off – all for a good cause.

When two of our team from Fonterra’s Clandeboye site heard that there was a shortage of ‘liquid gold’ in their local community, they knew they had to do something about it.

Saying thank you with hand sanitiser.

Fonterra’s Senior Research Technologist Richard Lloyd packed up the 3-D printer with him and has been putting it to good use for the community.

When New Zealand went into Covid-19 lockdown Fonterra’s In-School programmes (Fonterra Milk for Schools and KickStart Breakfast) let Principals know that, at their discretion, they could send product that was already at schools’ home with those most in need.

One of the ways Fonterra is helping to keep people safe during COVID-19 is by making more of our high-grade ethanol available to companies who use it in the production of sanitiser products, including hand sanitiser.

The Southland floods left farmers with a big clean up – it’s taken a group effort to support them.

Last year we introduced a new purpose and a new strategy. Since then we’ve made changes to how we’re organised and moved from two big global businesses to three regional, customer-led businesses.

As parts of New Zealand are struggling with drought Fonterra is lending a hand where it can with milk tankers delivering water to desperate communities.

There is a well-known saying that claims “if you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going.”

Surprising and surreal are the words Harvey Indyk uses when he’s asked to describe the last couple of months, for two similar reasons.

When the great great grandfather of Wairarapa dairy farmer Jason Christensen came to New Zealand he wouldn’t have imagined that 140 years later his family would still own and operate a farm he built from the ground up.

Every year, our 68 Farm Source stores deliver everyday farming supplies, important services and advice, and a return to the Co-op’s bottom line.

One of Fonterra’s Southland farmers travelled across the ditch to help fight the bush fires in Australia.

Instead we’re celebrating with rainbows.

One year on, Rob Fenwick, Chair of our inaugural Sustainability Advisory Panel, reflects on the sustainability challenges facing the Co-op and how the panel is advising the Co-op’s roadmap towards a sustainable future.

Once again, one of our own has proven that tanker drivers do so much more than moving milk from A to B.

We’re offering schools a chance to ditch plastic single-use straws to help the environment.

DIRA has been critical to the performance of New Zealand’s dairy sector but some aspects need modernising.

In the Te Rapa district of Hamilton, our tanker drivers know that every evening their biggest fan will be waiting for them on a dairy farm on Reid Road.

Taranaki farmer, teacher and staunch environmentalist Trish Rankin has been announced as the 2019 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year.

Our Emergency Response Team is lending a hand to get farms back up and running in the aftermath of recent storm.

On Saturday April 6, Te Rapa, Darfield and Edendale are all opening their gates and welcoming friends, family, farmers and local communities to check out the on-site action.

They may be tiny, slimy and reclusive, but the Canterbury mudfish are well worth protecting.

For International Women’s Day, we’re celebrating some of the inspiring women at the heart of the Co-op who love what they do.

To reduce pallet waste, Fonterra’s National Pallet Manager Lawrence Hooker has been working with supplier Timpack to redesign Fonterra’s pallets.

Our Open Gates event saw 16 of our farmers open the gates of their dairy farms to more than 8,400 Kiwis throughout New Zealand. Fonterra’s Director of Brand Jillian Laing explains the rationale behind the event and the challenge in building corporate reputation.

Brian and Pirkko Gallagher are passionate about sustainable farming. Not because they have to be – because they want to be and know it’s the right thing to do.

Enhancing the production and productivity of New Zealand’s primary sector, while maintaining and improving the quality of the country’s land and water for future generations. That’s the mission of the ‘Our Land and Water’ National Science Challenge.

It’s a beautiful thing when farmers and the community come together and join forces to restore a local jewel of the environment, providing a home for hundreds of native plants and threatened wildlife.

It was a special night for Fonterra farmers at the Ahuwhenua Trophy awards evening in Christchurch on May 25. Governor General, Dame Patsy Reddy announced Bay of Plenty shareholders, the Onuku Māori Lands Trust as the winner of the Ahuwhenua Trophy Māori Excellence in Farming Award.

This year we’re celebrating the women who are proud Fonterra farmers by finding out what it’s like to work in dairy.

At peak dairy season, our truck drivers drive enough to circle around the world eight times. We encourage our drivers to make safety a number one priority on their routes.