Open Country opens butter plant
When American retail giant Cosco came to audit Open Country Dairy’s new butter plant at the Waharoa site and give the green light to supply their American stores, they allowed themselves a week for the exercise.
Kelvin Wickham, chief executive Fonterra Africa, Middle East, Europe, North Asia, Americas (AMENA), says that ‘carbonzero’ ingredients, like NZMP organic butter, can help unlock real benefits for customers.
“It helps them to meet their sustainability targets, signal environmental values, and grow brand preference and market share through differentiated products,” he says.
“Fonterra New Zealand dairy farming already has one of the world’s lowest on-farm carbon footprints, approximately one third of the global average, putting NZMP in a strong position to offer sustainability solutions that help customers reduce their environmental impact, while claiming an advantage in the market.”
To become ‘carbonzero’ certified, Fonterra has partnered with an independent company called Toitu Envirocare. This company measures the impact of producing the NZMP organic butter, all the way from farm and manufacturing, through to distribution and even the disposal of packaging by customers.
“Understanding our footprint means we can offset our impact with high quality carbon credits from projects, including native forest regeneration in New Zealand and gold standard renewable energy projects,” says Wickham.
Lara Phillips, senior manager of Fonterra Sustainability Solutions says it is delighted to be to offer NZMP customers a way to contribute to a lower carbon future.
NZMP organic butter ‘carbonzero’ certified is currently available to customers in the US. Over time, to support customer needs and demand, NZMP will look to broaden the portfolio to more product categories and regions.
