Content supplied by Synlait Milk
Synlait Milk announced a new partnership with United States company, Munchkin Inc., and a subsequent premium earning milk supply opportunity at its annual milk supply conference held in Christchurch today.
Munchkin, an innovative baby products manufacturer, plans to launch a new Grass Fed branded retail-ready infant formula into the United States and China that will be manufactured exclusively by Synlait.
Synlait Managing Director Dr John Penno says, strategically Synlait has been looking at opportunities that reduce its exposure to China.
“We are cognisant of ensuring our infant formula business does not become overly reliant on the China market, and so Munchkin, with its focus on the United States market, is a potentially important addition to our growing portfolio of retail-ready infant formula customers,” said Dr Penno.
The raw milk used to manufacture the unique infant formula is subject to a new Grass Fed standard co-developed by Munchkin and Synlait. It requires cows to be exclusively grazed on a pasture and crop based diet, with no feeding of grain, or feed not grown in New Zealand. Farmers will be independently audited to ensure they meet, and maintain the standard.
Munchkin CEO Steve Dunn says, “The new standard, and a unique Grass Fed infant formula line to meet growing consumer demand, particularly in the United States, is a big opportunity for Munchkin. Our forecast gross revenue for FY15 is over US$300 million, and we expect the growth of the Grass Fed infant formula business to contribute significantly to our bottom line over time.”
Dr Penno added that Grass Fed is a unique value added opportunity that will reward a small group of Synlait suppliers who choose to follow the new standard by paying them a premium for their milk.
“Our focus is on ensuring we continue to provide our milk suppliers with opportunities to earn more for their milk, over and above the base milk price. Grass Fed adds to the existing range of premium earning options our suppliers can choose from which includes A2 milk, Immuron Colostrum, and our best practice dairy farming programme Lead With PrideTM,” Dr Penno said.
9 Comments
While NZ farmers still get ripped off USA Dairymen get 57% More than us says US Rabo bank
I thought this might be about the relationship between the use of palm kernel and changes in milk composition.
I understand a bit of research has been done because it is causing problems with changes in the composition of the milk fat in particular and consequently affecting certain manufacturing processes to the point of needing to shut down some lines.
Not sure that just 25 cents is going to do it...
Synlait Milk suppliers could earn 25 cents more for their milk if they can farm only on grass.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/69505815/synlaits-grass-f…
Asking farmers to graze only on grass would limit their options so Synlait would pay qualifying farmers a premium of 25c per kilogram of milksolids.
Cows would still be allowed to graze on crops, but not specially prepared additives, Penno said.
My concern would be attracting the attention of the US farm lobby. Anything that detracts from their product will cause us problems. If your infant formula is grass fed are you saying, all the other formulas are not? If you milk is hormone free, are you saying the other milk has hormones in it? If your mince is natural grass fed, is all the other mince unnatural grain fed feedlot grown?
Trust me the farm lobby in the USA won't like this style of marketing, they spend a fortune so people are confused, have no idea how their pork is raised, their chickens are treated or their beef grown. Try and get a camera into a beef feedlot, or just try to get in, trust me it's hard.
The USA might be the land of the free, but that's only if you are playing their game, try playing your own and you will get red carded in a flash.
The corporatization of USA farm production is very interesting and would be disagreeable to most consumers, if they only new what they were eating. I talked to a farmer supplying beef to a feedlot, he has a list of 17 vaccinations required, including hormones ,with dates when they were to be administered.
Smithfield farms in the USA, kills 16 million of its own pigs every year, employs 46,000 people, produces 6.5 billion pounds of pork, and is now Chinese owned.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/may/29/smithfield-pork-shuangh…
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