We increased the volume of products we shipped out in the last quarter of 2024 following a strong start to the milk season, high demand for our milk products and our ability to process and deliver the higher volume of our product to our customers.  

Figures show that we shipped out 60,000 metric tonnes of our products in the fourth quarter of 2024, a 14% increase on the 53,000 metric tonnes for the same period in 2023.  

The tonnage included a 100% increase in amount of butter shipped vs the same time last year while we also lifted our colostrum, UHT milk and UHT cream shipment volumes significantly.  

The 2024/25 milk season got away to a great start with early season production up on previous years and ahead of predictions after a mild winter resulting in good grass growth and cows calving in excellent condition on Westland supplier’s farms. It also meant a strong season for producing colostrum, a product sought after world-wide. During the peak of the season the company was producing almost 1000 tonnes of finished milk products across our manufacturing sites on our highest production days.  

Milk supply has since levelled out. 

Kevin Wang, General Manager – Supply Chain, says “both our export and domestic markets are performing strongly. The increased product demand is across the board for both our fat and protein portfolios”. 

“We have been able to bring in additional milk from external parties to ensure that we can increase our production capacity across our processing operation to meet the current demand for our milk products. Across the production and supply chain, our teams have done so well to convert the higher volume of milk into sought-after product.” 

“Peak production means we’re busy at every part of the process, from our farmer suppliers to our warehouse teams working 24/7 packing the goods into containers for export, at times averaging 40 containers a day.” 

Kevin Wang says that given the nature of the New Zealand milk production curve, the peak for shipping out product is always November and December. “It’s not always easy to execute given the holiday season. We have faced a number of challenges including resourcing our warehouses, vessel schedule changes, container shortage, transportation resources, constraints around external laboratory testing and customer port permit issues,” he says, 

“However, as the results show, our teams did so well and there was incredible teamwork between sales, order management, quality, production and the supply chain.”