Fonterra is investing $555m (€352m) in processing capacity to meet global demand. Announcing the large-scale project, Fonterra’s CEO Theo Spierings said this investment will not only grow the co-operative’s processing capability, but will allow for more flexibility to better optimise production.

The co-op will build a drier with a processing capacity of up to 4.4 million litres per day in South Waikato. This would make it similar in size to the world’s largest drier, which it currently operates. This produces up to 30 metric tonnes of whole milk powder per hour, and 700 metric tonnes per day.

A further three new plants are planned for Southland to include a 1.1 million litre per day milk protein concentrate (MPC) plant, a reverse osmosis plant and anhydrous milk fat plant.

The co-op’s strategy is to increase profits by driving more milk volume into higher-value categories, moving away from commodities. Fonterra has invested more than $1.8bn (€1.14bn) to grow processing capacity since 2011.