Record end-of-season quarter

Fonterra has posted a record end-of-season quarter for May, June and July with 620,000 metric tonnes of dairy products exported to more than 100 markets around the world.

The dairy giant shipped 36 per cent more than the same period last year.

Fonterra has posted a record end-of-season quarter exporting 620,000 metric tonnes of dairy products.

Milk products managing director Gary Romano says the record milk production in the 2011/2012 season means Fonterra exported more products at the end-of-the-season than ever before.

“Our teams have done a great job collecting the milk, processing it, packing it, storing it, selling it and shipping it.

“If we were to lay the containers we have shipped this year end-to-end they would stretch from the top of the Bombay hills to Christchurch, which is around 1000 kilometres.”

Gary says Fonterra traditionally ships just over 450,000 MT at this time of the year, but they’ve had a lot more product to move.

He says this has meant some creative planning across the wider supply chain to manage and store the additional volume.

“For the first time since Fonterra was formed we charted our own break-bulk vessel to send products to the Middle East.”

Demand is usually up ahead of the month of Ramadan, but the demand spike was more than anyone expected, says Gary.

He says there was not enough available container capacity at that time of year.

This meant Fonterra had to charter its own vessel, which docked earlier this month, to take 7500 MT of product to the ports in Dubai and Saudi.

“Our farmers did a great job making the most out of the favourable weather conditions during the season and it has been our responsibility to make sure we get the most out of every drop of milk we collected and bring the best returns back to our farmer shareholders.

“The new season has now started with the milk following again to our site around New Zealand.”