Westland Milk eyeing global ‘white gold' protein role
Westland Milk Products will become one of the world’s top three producers of the “white gold” dairy protein lactoferrin when it trebles output from a new plant this year.
Lactoferrin is a small and highly lucrative nutraceutical component of milk, sought after for its high nutritional value and antibacterial, antiviral and anti-cancer properties and for regulation of the activity of immune system activity.
Hokitika-based Westland Milk has been making this essential ingredient of infant formula for 20 years but plans to significantly broaden its global market share from August when it commissions a $70 million new production plant.
The development will offer both freeze-dried and spray-dried versions of what is known in the $26 billion New Zealand export dairy industry as “white gold”.
Hamish Yates, general manager for sales and marketing, said Westland’s expertise in lactoferrin has led to its laboratory and technical people acknowledged as leading market experts in the bioactive ingredient, writing white papers and articles for leading industry journals.
“It’s literally one of the most important and beneficial proteins that exist in human milk, and in regards to early life nutrition, it plays a really important role in the development of the defence system of an infant in its very early days,” Yates said.
“It provides very similar nutritional and biological benefits as human lactoferrin so its inclusion in infant formulas, particularly in stage one infant formulas, is very important. But it offers a lot to humans in other parts of their lives as well.
“It basically kills any bacteria that it comes in contact with, it’s antifungal and anti-viral, and has a whole lot of benefits for topical applications, helping wounds heal faster and bone regeneration, when used as a supplement.”
Lactoferrin is such a small component of milk that complex technology and manufacturing processes are needed to extract it, Yates said.
Westland Milk has long produced export lactoferrin in freeze-dried form but the new plant will enable it to also offer a spray-dried product and to move into a new range of products.
“Some customers prefer freezedried and will only buy that, some will only buy spray-dried. Now we will have both options available, which is very unique.”
For commercial reasons, Yates won’t discuss its lactoferrin volumes or revenue but said the product was Westland Milk’s highest revenue product per metric tonne. But it’s costly to produce, he said.
The building for the lactoferrin production plant was completed and the stainless steel was now being installed, he said.
“We are still on track for commissioning early in the [new] season so in August/september we’re going to be focused on running milk through the plant, getting everything dialled in with the view to having graded commercial samples available to us as the sales team to send out to prospective customers to consider and approve.”
Hi-tech factory
The “state of the art” plant will enable Westland Milk to lift its lactoferrin production capacity by almost three times, he said.
Currently, at least 90 per cent of Westland Milk lactoferrin goes to infant formula makers. China is the biggest market, with some production going to Japan, Korea and Europe.