Chinese plannz milk plant
The Waikato town of Pokeno will be home to the first Chinese milk processing plant in New Zealand if a Chinese company is given the green light to buy land for a planned $210 million infant baby formula operation – creating 100 new local jobs.
Yashili International is one of China’s biggest infant baby formula and soymilk powder makers, and has a conditional agreement to buy land in Pokeno’s Gateway business park at the northern end of the Waikato expressway.
The New Zealander fronting negotiations for the Chinese, experienced dairy infrastructure specialist Terry Norwood, said, if approved, commissioning of the plant was planned for the second half of next year. Yashili has formed a New Zealand-registered company for the deal, Yashili New Zealand Dairy.
The plant, which would produce up to 52,000 tonnes of finished and semi-finished milk products a year, would buy its milk from a successful tenderer, which could be Fonterra or other parties, Norwood said.
Yashili did not plan to have its own farmer suppliers.
Norwood would only say Yashili’s application had been made to the Overseas Investment Office ‘‘before Christmas’’.
A Chinese company, Shanghai Pengxin, had a two-year journey through the OIO with legal and political challenges before it got the allclear to buy the Crafar farm estate, 16 North Island dairy farms that went into receivership in 2009.
Waikato District Council said it expected to receive an application later this month for the necessary resource consents to build the plant.
Norwood said Yashili’s interest in New Zealand would be wholly concentrated on manufacturing.
He said the company had focused on the Waikato for its New Zealand debut because ‘‘it represents the best New Zealand has in dairying’’.
‘‘It is the embodiment of the New Zealand image for quality dairy product, and Pokeno is a convenient transport location for the ports of Auckland and Tauranga.’’
Yashili wanted the project to be seen internationally as a working model for future successful investment in New Zealand’s dairy industry, Norwood said.
The proposed plant would be built on part of a 80-hectare industrial park being developed by a New Zealand consortium in western Pokeno. Earthworks are under way for the industrial park. Yashili is a 30-yearold company based in Chaozhou, Guangdong province, and has plants in Guangdong, Shanxi and Heilongjiang.