Chinese eye Waikato milk for $210m 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 its planned $210 million infant baby formula operation.

Yashili International is one of China’s biggest infant 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, the plant would provide local jobs for 100 people.

Commissioning

of

the

plant

is 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 product a year, would buy its milk from a successful tenderer, which could be Fonterra or other parties, Norwood said.

Norwood would say only that Yashili’s application had been made to the Overseas Investment Office ‘‘before Christmas’’.

He said Yashili’s interest in New Zealand would be wholly concentrated on manufacturing.

The company had focused on Waikato for its New Zealand debut because ‘‘it represents the best New Zealand has in dairying’’.