Dairy menu for China
Fonterra has invested in a new foodservice application centre in Guangzhou where it tests innovations like cheese lollipops and tea macchiato with its Chinese customers as it looks to accelerate the fast-growing business.
Greater China was Fonterra’s standout performer in the six months to the end of January and that was largely thanks to its foodservice business, which supplies bakeries, tea houses, coffee shops, restaurants, convenience store chains and supermarkets with new dairy products created at its research and development hub in Palmerston North.
Guangzhou, the capital city of the fast-growing southern province of Guangdong, is part of the Greater Bay Area of 11 cities targeted by Chinese President Xi Jinping for development as an economic and business hub.
Guangzhou has a strong food history as the origin of popular Cantonese cuisine and the blueprint for the city sees its development as a centre of culinary excellence. With a young and fastgrowing population and a strong cuisine culture, Fonterra sees the area as having huge growth potential. ‘‘In terms of innovation potential or new product development potential, I would say it would only be constrained by our thinking,’’ said Justin Dai, Fonterra’s vice-president of foodservice in China. ‘‘Consumers keep looking for new experiences, new flavours, new textures and new varieties, and they keep looking for better, healthier, tasty ingredients to bring into their traditional cuisine or even new kinds of products. Nothing is off the table. There is nothing we won’t try,’’ Dai said.
From the hundreds of ideas that Fonterra and its customers came up with, not all would translate into commercial success, however the food culture was very open with consumers driving producers to develop new ideas and keep surprising them, Dai said.
The cream cheese lollipops are proving popular as a healthier snack for children, as is tea macchiato, which adds a dash of cream cheese and cream to tea, and the addition of probiotics to coffee is an emerging trend. Beer and cocktails with cream cheese macchiato are also offered via craft beverage outlets.
Innovation is one of Fonterra’s three focus areas, alongside sustainability and efficiency. New dairy products also generate higher profit margins than the cooperative can get from commodity products like whole milk powder.
To appeal to the Chinese market, Fonterra has developed cream cheese pastry, dumplings with mozzarella, cream that does not require refrigeration, mozzarella cheese for pizza services, and single serve pizzas that are ready in one minute.
Fonterra also has application centres in Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu, and plans to open one in Wuhan this year.