TOP EXPERT PANEL PRAISES FONTERRA PGP PROGRAMME Top international dairy scientists believe Fonterra is “escaping the commodity spiral” and starting to benefit from the higher returns in value-added products…and much of the progress has been placed at the feet of science and innovation emanating from the Transforming the Dairy Value Chain Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) programme. An independent expert review panel reviewing the PGP programme’s 8 JULY 2016 food structure science – including Allen Foegeding from North Carolina State University and Erich Windhab from ETH Zurich – have praised the programme, saying that food consumers around the world are increasingly concerned about the origin of food, its environmental footprint, quality and how it might support healthier lifestyles. Consumers will pay more for food that satisfies those criteria, the panel says, but that involves R&D. The PGP programme is “being successful over a sustained period” and “unique internationally,” the panel says, praising its “high-calibre research” into cheese, cream and other foods, and the balance struck between that and “clear industry objectives. “This means that the innovative developments seeded throughout the past five-year PGP period can be expected to enter into maturation and value-adding within the next couple of years,” the panel says. The Transforming the Dairy Value Chain PGP is a seven-year, $170 million innovation investment involving the Ministry for Primary Industries and commercial partners, including DairyNZ and Fonterra. The programme aims to enable the creation of new dairy products, increase on-farm productivity, reduce environmental impacts and improve agricultural education. “We believe that the research-technology development structure established in the current PGP programme is a unique and powerful way to drive innovation,” the panel noted. “Besides establishing the science and technology needed to produce next-generation products, it also develops the next generation of researchers and Fonterra co-workers.” The panel says one of the PGP programme’s major successes is the development of a new mozzarella that takes six hours to produce, rather than the traditional two months. Fonterra recently opened its $72 million Clandeboye expansion, supported by the advances in mozzarella. It created 25 permanent new jobs and the Coop now produces enough cheese to cover 300 million pizzas a year. Other advances are in the pipeline and “goals that seemed impossible at the start …are now seen as a commercial possibility.” These include sturdier creams better able to tolerate different temperatures and supply chains, especially in the lucrative Asian market; whipping creams that looks good 24 hours after being applied to cakes and other products; and beverages with longer shelf-lives. Also, the PGP investment has enabled studies on taste and food texture preferences in key markets. These have identified major new opportunities. “We believe that the researchtechnologydevelopment structure established in the current PGP programme is a unique and powerful way to drive innovation.”
FT-Jul16
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