Fonterra adding capacity on South Island in New Zealand

GEA Process Engineering has been awarded a EUR40 million project to build a 15 tonnes per hour whole milk powder plant for Fonterra in New Zealand. The project, known as the Darfield project, is due to be commissioned in August 2012 and will be undertaken by GEA Process Engineering New Zealand.
Fonterra processes 90% of New Zealand’s milk production, The project will be similar in capacity to three plants previously built by GEA for Fonterra. The Darfield project covers milk reception, standardisation, evaporation, drying, powder transport and packing, as well as construction of the building that will house the plant. The plant is the sixth greenfield plant that GEA Process Engineering has supplied in New Zealand over the past four years.
The driver for the new plant is increased milk production in the South Island of New Zealand, which has been expanding at 8% per year due to conversions from other land uses and improved productivity from current farms, which Fonterra is obligated to handle. The end products of the new plant, will service the growing markets in Asia, where the demand for milk powder products is rising.