Why Fonterra accepted defeat in the dairy aisle
OPINION: Fonterra's sale of its consumer dairy business to Lactalis is a clear sign of the co-operative’s failure to compete in the branded consumer market.
Anchor Light Proof milk bottles will soon appear on farms but you won’t find them in a fridge.
Fonterra has teamed up with Kiwi-owned start-up Future Post to turn milk bottles and other soft plastics into farm fence posts — from 100% recycled material.
Fonterra Brands New Zealand’s (FBNZ) sustainability and environment manager, Larisa Thathiah, says the posts are a step forward in farm sustainability.
“This provides farmers with an environmentally friendly fencing option made from the packaging of our farmers’ milk,” says Thathiah. “It’s [cutting] waste or at least turning it into something useful.”
The posts are expected to last at least 50 years.
The managing director of Future Post, Jerome Wenzlick, welcomes the support of Fonterra and he hopes the company will develop other sustainable products for farmers.
“We’re using waste that could have gone to landfill,” says Wenzlick. “This gives us access to a steady supply of raw material from the co-op’s own recycling initiatives, and to the network of nationwide Farm Source stores that can sell the fence posts.
“Future Post is a start-up, but we have plans for new products in 2019 including for non-farming sectors.”
The posts will go on sale in the new year in some Fonterra Farm Source stores in the North Island, and in South Island stores mid-2019.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
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