Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Fonterra aims to increase organic dairy production

Updated at 2:00 pm on 19 March 2010

Fonterra is hoping to more than double the number of cows it has in its organic programme, to tap into the steadily increasing demand for organic milk products both locally and overseas.

About 10 new suppliers have recently signed up with the dairy giant, since Taranaki-based NZ Organic Dairy Co-operative went into receivership last year.

Fonterra's organics category manager, Rick Carmont, says the number of organic milk suppliers on the company's books has climbed by 40 to 120 over the last year, excluding the those from the Taranaki co-operative.

At present 25,000 cows are either certified as producing organic milk or are in the process of getting certification.

Ideally the company would like to have between 55,000 and 60,000 cows supplying it with organic milk to meet overseas demand, he says.

Rick Carmont says globally, the number of certified organic dairy cows has just hit 1 million and the market is worth at least $50 billion.

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