Sheep milk industry gets govt funding

The Government has joined with private enterprise to inject $31.4 million into the growing sheep milk industry.

A programme announced on Thursday aims to increase the numbers of farms from the current half dozen to 55, and to lift annual revenues from $7.6m to between $200-$700m by 2030.

The Ministry for Primary Industries has partnered with the Spring Sheep Milk company based near Taupo in a Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) programme.

MPI will invest $12.56m (40 per cent), with Spring Sheep Milk investing $18.83m over the six-year life of the programme. Spring Sheep Milk is a 50-50 partnership between Landcorp and a number of New Zealand investors through SLC Ventures LP.

Spring Sheep Milk chief executive Scottie Chapman said the programme aimed to develop an ‘‘end-to-end value chain – on farm, through processing and then into marketing’’. The returns would be generated and retained in New Zealand.

‘‘To achieve a sheep milk industry delivering domestic and export returns at the upper range of $700m, New Zealand will need up to 55 farms managed by farmers with specific sheep milking expertise. The current farming model in New Zealand won’t achieve this, which is why this joint investment between ourselves and MPI is so critical,’’ Chapman said.

Spring Sheep Milk operates one farm of around 4000 east friesian sheep. Currently New Zealand milks about 25,000 ewes, with the other big players Southland’s Blue River which now has 15,000 milking ewes, the largest sheep dairy flock in New Zealand, and Waituhi Kuratau Trust (WKT) near Turangi.