Murray Goulburn to boost production to tap overseas markets

Australian dairy co-operative Murray Goulburn plans to invest A$200m ($211m) in UHT milk, butter and cheese-making facilities over the next three years, in order to strengthen its global competitiveness and offer good returns to suppliers.

Murray Goulburn managing director Gary Helou said that over the past ten months, the company has been lowering its cost base and identifying international growth opportunities.

"We are now entering the next phase of Murray Goulburn’s development that requires significant investment in leading-edge manufacturing facilities that generate higher value products and enable greater innovation as well as cost leadership," Helou added.

Murray Goulburn plans to establish UHT facilities with features such as one-step milk processing, high-speed lines, a high degree of automation, and a variety of pack formats, to double its UHT milk production capacity to approximately 500 million litres.

With the increased UHT milk production capacity, the co-operative seeks to tap into the Asia and the Middle East markets, where liquid milk consumption is growing at 5%-10% annually.

The co-operative will also boost its consumer butter capacity to 20,000t per annum and install a new butter packing line at its plant in Koroit, Victoria.

It plans to produce new butter blend products that will be developed directly from cream or from excess bulk butter produced in peak milk supply periods.

Murray Goulburn aims to produce low-cost consumer butter and blends in Australia, to benefit from the growing retail and food service markets in Asia and the Middle East.

In addition, the co-operative will set up an automated cheese cut and wrap plant, which will produce more than 60,000t of cheese blocks, shred and slices per annum at low cost.

By evaluating a variety of pack formats and processing technologies, it plans to develop a new range of consumer cheese products.

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Image: The A$200m ($211m) investment will enable Murray Goulburn to boost production of UHT milk, butter and cheese. Photo: Murray Goulburn Co-operative Co. Limited