White stuff

supermarkets, which will complement its regional Oaklands brand available in glass bottles from shops, home and cafe deliveries, and vending machines.

Hardcore milk drinkers can also buy non-pasteurised raw milk, although the Ministry of Primary Industries recently introduced tougher rules requiring people to obtain supplies from the farms rather than at retail collection points.

Village Milk managing director Richard Houston, based in Takaka, said his company had become a consultant to other raw milk producers since the rules were tightened.

The advantages of raw milk were from natural enzymes in the non-modified milk, he said. The big challenge was hygiene when milking to avoid contamination, and a rigorous testing regime.

‘‘There are farmers who have been dairy farming all their lives who get awards. But our systems take it to another level way beyond what they’re used to,’’ Houston said.

The consumer hunger for organics, whole, raw and powder milk, and sheep and goat dairy products is also driving the growth of new businesses.

At the bigger end of the scale are marketers like Lewis Road Creamery, which was founded by Peter Cullinane in 2012 and has an annual $25 million turnover from sales of butter, organic and flavoured milks, creams and ice cream.

Cullinane has replicated the Fonterra marketing model by contracting suppliers and coordinating marketing for new products. His closest rival is Puhoi Valley.

Lewis Road sources and processes its milk at North Waikato’s Green Valley Dairy, which set up a factory in 2003, and has several organic farm suppliers although, when demand is high or production is low in winter, the group will source milk from Fonterra, which is required by legislation to supply other companies.

Angela Weeks, general manager of Lewis Road Creamery, said organic milks represented about 5.6 per cent of the country’s total milk sales, and it was a growing category.

‘‘Organic milk usually achieves a higher price premium of 10 per cent to 20 per cent compared with nonorganic,’’ she said.

‘‘Consumers have switched onto the fact that not all milks

Above, Oaklands milk farmer Julian Raine, with glass bottled milk delivered by contractor Bill Stansbury. Left, Takaka’s Village Milk managing director, Richard Houston, with one of his raw milk automatic dispensers which satisfies a niche

Glen Herud at Ohoka with his mobile milk shed. Herud leaves calves with their mother for 15 weeks which is the natural weaning period.

Peter Cullinane who set up Lewis Road Creamery in 2012 with one of the company’s recent creations – chocolate cream liqueur.

market.