Fonterra Forms Joint Venture for Whey Protein

AUCKLAND, New ZealandFonterra and First Milk entered into a strategic joint venture for the production and sourcing of whey proteins.

The two dairy farmer cooperatives will combine their intellectual property and industry expertise to add value to the dairy protein streams at First Milks Lake District creamery in Cumbria, England. For Fonterra, this joint venture is the first step in realizing its goal of local European sourcing to meet the nutrition ingredient demand of European customers. For First Milk, this deal adds value to the whey side stream of the cheesemaking process, which will enhance the returns it can pass back to its farmer members.

Koert Liekelema, Fonterra Europes Managing Director, said: We are delighted to announce this joint venture. First Milk shares the cooperative heritage and spirit with us and we look forward to using our combined consumer insights and innovative mind-sets to produce products which help European consumers live healthier lives.

This deal underpins Fonterras strategic focus on premium dairy ingredients. Furthermore, we are very pleased to be working with First Milk, enabling Fonterra to offer customized, premium whey protein ingredients to the major food and beverages companies in Europe."

Kate Allum, chief executive of First Milk commented: While this is our first step into added value whey markets, it builds on the work we have done recently with a range of partners across the supply chain to deliver pioneering solutions."

The whey proteins from First Milk Lake District creamery will be applied in Fonterras functional and cultured nutrition ingredients like PowerProtein and ElevateProtein, based on Whey Protein 80% ingredients (WPC80).