Fonterra opens dairy warehouse to support demand

Fonterra opened a dairy ingredients warehouse in Dubai to help support the growing demand for dairy products throughout the Middle East, Africa and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region.

The new facility, officially opened by New Zealand minister of primary industries Nathan Guy, will be a distribution hub for Fonterra’s ingredients business which sells more than US$2 billion in dairy ingredients throughout the region each year.

Fonterra general manager MEA & CIS Miles Hurrell, said the Middle East, Africa and CIS region is a significant market for Fonterra’s dairy exports from New Zealand.

“Our ingredient imports into this region have continued to grow 10% year on year, and our investment in this facility reflects this growth. By storing product in market, we can provide our customers with greater flexibility, significantly reducing product delivery times and providing access to high quality dairy ingredients as and when they need it,” said Hurrell.

The warehouse will allow Fonterra to hold over 5000MT of product in Dubai to quickly respond to customer needs. Hurrell said Fonterra plans to expand this capacity over time to allow re-exporting from the UAE to customers in other parts of the region.

The Fonterra ingredients business sells a diversified mix of products including whole milk powder, cheese, skim milk power, anhydrous milk fat and butter to over 70 countries across the MEA & CIS region.