Oat industry keen on plant milk factory

AUCKLAND: Key players in the oat industry want to capitalise on increasing demand, with the country’s first plantbased milk factory on the horizon.

The Oat Industry Group, comprised of growers, processors and retailers, met near Gore last week to talk about opportunities for the future of the grain.

Southland’s economic development agency had seen potential for plantbased beverages in the region and formed a company, New Zealand Functional Foods, to commercialise production.

Functional Foods chairman Roger Carruthers said once it had secured enough investment, construction on a hightech plant in Invercargill would get under way.

‘‘The purpose is to really support and develop a new industry in the country,’’ Mr Carruthers said.

‘‘What that’ll do to Southland is really to provide an alternative land use, to help support the initiatives around climate change, some of the concerns around soil degradation et cetera.’’

He said the first focus of the facility was to take advantage of the region’s oat farming infrastructure, which had been refined over 150 years, but the factory could adapt to process other plants, too.

At the field day, Mr Carruthers updated other industry members on the project, aiming to show there were the resources and backing to get the processing plant built.

The company had secured its cornerstone investment from The Warehouse founder Sir Stephen Tindall’s startup backer, K1W1, and was working on securing further capital to start construction.

Functional Foods aimed to start construction of the plant early this year and hoped to begin production a year from then.

Oat milk retailer All Good founder Simon Coley said he looked forward to taking advantage of a locally grown and processed product — without an oat milk facility in New Zealand, the company had to source it from Sweden, he said.

The planned facility in Southland would provide another option for All Good and contribute to regional development.

‘‘This is a really interesting opportunity given that there’s a need to develop primary industry in the region that has higher value. It looks to us like this is the perfect conditions for that,’’ Mr Coley said.

Southland produced oats at a level that could allow a move to worldwide trade when the plant opened, and he expected plantbased milks to become more prevalent around the world, he said.

‘‘There’s a place for New Zealand to play in that international market. We have the willingness, the growing conditions, the product development experience, and very soon the technology to do that.’’

Harraways financial controller Donald Benington said the increased popularity of oatbased foods was creating change in the industry, reflected at the field day.

‘‘It’s an opportunity for the industry to meet . . . traditionally it has been growers mainly and Harraways because we’ve been the final end use for most of the oats, but increasingly oat milk is coming on to the horizon so there’ll be more discussion and engagement with that industry now,’’ he said.

A large purpose of the group was to keep up with the cultivation of oat varieties suited for different products.

Southland arable farmer Graeme Gardyne, who was at the field day, said growers were ready to ramp up production but were waiting for the plant to get up and running.

‘‘We’re putting in extra storage . . . there is increased area of oats going in now, but the rest of it really needs to wait on them getting the thing over the line,’’ he said.

Functional Foods said if all went to plan, New Zealand should have locally made oat milk in its fridges by next year. — RNZ