fbpx
Print this page
Tuesday, 18 February 2020 11:25

Fonterra butter stars in Oz

Written by  Sudesh Kissun
Fonterra’s award-winning team from Cobden site in Victoria. Fonterra’s award-winning team from Cobden site in Victoria.

Fonterra is enjoying a golden run in the Australian butter market.

The co-op’s Western Star salted butter scooped the Champion Butter title for the 10th time at the Australian Grand Dairy Awards this month. It also picked up the Grand Dairy Champion award.

Western Star is manufactured at the co-op’s Cobden site in western Victoria.

Fonterra Cobden production manager Samir Suri says the team is thrilled with the wins.

The win coincides with the launch of a national television advertising campaign for Western Star.

Suri says there has been a lot of celebration at the Cobden site.

“It’s been a really great week for our people, not only is our hard work showcased on national television, it’s again been recognised as the best butter in Australia,” he says.

“Winning these awards are a testament to the consistency of the butter we produce – it’s the simple ingredients, the expert craft of our team, and of course, the quality of our south west farmers’ milk, which makes it so great,” says Suri.  Western Star is an iconic Aussie favourite, with judges describing it as a classic, pure, creamy butter with a rich satisfying, five-star taste. 

Celebrating its 21st year, the Australian Grand Dairy Awards are the premier dairy awards within the Australian dairy industry. Organised by Dairy Australia, these awards recognise the ‘best of the best’ - each of the 400 products entered this year are already gold awards winners in State level competitions. 

Australia’s top cheeses, ice creams, milks, butter, gelato are judged by a 12-strong panel of top dairy judges.

“Winning at The Australian Grand Dairy Awards is the highest accolade in the dairy industry and is testament to our farmers and producers, whose hard work and dedication to their craft inspires some of the highest quality dairy products in the world,” said Dairy Australia’s Alexandra Kury, convener of the awards.

The 2020 Australian Grand Cheese Champion title went to Victorian producer, Berry’s Creek Gourmet Cheese for its Oak Blue.

Victorian producers claimed the highest number of Champion titles, taking out seven of the nineteen categories: Western Australia followed with four, New South Wales with three, South Australia and Queensland with two and Tasmania with one.

More like this

All eyes on NZ milk supply

All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.

"Our" business?

OPINION: One particular bone the Hound has been gnawing on for years now is how the chattering classes want it both ways when it comes to the success of NZ's dairy industry.

Farmers' call

OPINION: Fonterra's $4.22 billion consumer business sale to Lactalis is ruffling a few feathers outside the dairy industry.

Wasted energy

OPINION: Finance Minister Nicola Willis could have saved her staff and MBIE time and effort over ‘buttergate’ recently by not playing politics with butter prices in the first place.

Featured

Australia develops first local mRNA FMD vaccine

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.

NZ household food waste falls again

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.

Editorial: No joking matter

OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.

National

All eyes on NZ milk supply

All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.

Machinery & Products

Leader balers arrive in NZ

Officially launched at the National Fieldays event in June, the Leader in-line conventional PRO 1900 balers are imported and distributed…

JDLink Boost for NZ farms

Connectivity is widely recognised as one of the biggest challenges facing farmers, but it is now being overcome through the…

New generation Defender HD11

The all-new 2026 Can-Am Defender HD11 looks likely to raise the bar in the highly competitive side-by-side category.