Fonterra, the New Zealand dairy cooperative, has opened its $2.4 m state of the art facility for North American research & development in Rosemont, near Chicago's O'Hare airport.
The Chicago Technical Center's 15 employee staff will work with Fonterra's North American customers which include the five largest food companies to smaller, regional firms. Staff will also work with universities and outside laboratories on customer projects.
Fonterra North America's corporate office was moved to Chicago earlier this year.
The CTC applies New Zealand intellectual property and technology to benefit both the New Zealand and US dairy industries. The center will allow Fonterra's technical staff and its customers to communicate on the processes and taste of products such as cheeses, yoghurt, paediatric formulas, beverages and energy bars.
Recent Fonterra launches in the North American market have been the PowerProtein (TM) range for improved bar functionality and flavour; clear clean flavoured whey-based beverage ingredients; speciality milk protein concentrates for both the cheese and yoghurt industries to improve yields and textures; and a number of hydrolysates for the paediatric nutrition area.
Close proximity of the North American corporate office and R&D facilities should improve coordination with Fonterra's other research and development hubs in Palmerston North, Melbourne, Australia, and Hamburg, Germany.
Hopefully part of the R&D will be directed at improving quality control & testing to better and more quickly detect quality problems such as the melamine tainting in Chinese-sourced milk in recent months.
Welcome to the neighbourhood, Fonterra!
Showing posts with label Fonterra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fonterra. Show all posts
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Fonterra Coughs Up $8.4 million Donation for China
Fonterra, the New Zealand dairy cooperative linked through its joint venture Sanlu to melamine tainted infant formula in China that has sickened in excess of 50,000 children, has announced it is making a NZ$8.4 million donation to a Chinese charity set up by Deng Xiaoping, the former Chinese leader. The charity will build and operate maternal and infant community centres.
Fonterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier interviewed in Beijing said it was staff in China who came up with the donation idea. When asked if $8.4 million was enough, he replied "That's an amount which is going to create an enormous amount of goodwill and good work."
It's an indictment of Fonterra management and ownership that the initiative for the charitable work did not come from the top of the organization exercising wise and socially-responsibly judgement but had to come from staff lower down the organization in China.
Moreover, the charitable contribution averages out to just over $150 per child sickened by the poisoned milk.
Fortunately for Fonterra, Chinese consumers do not seem to associate Fonterra with tainted milk products. A consumer survey in China of 900 people found that only 3 percent regarded New Zealand in a poorer light because of the scandal, largely because most consumers do not know of Fonterra's ownership stake in Sanlu.
Fonterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier interviewed in Beijing said it was staff in China who came up with the donation idea. When asked if $8.4 million was enough, he replied "That's an amount which is going to create an enormous amount of goodwill and good work."
It's an indictment of Fonterra management and ownership that the initiative for the charitable work did not come from the top of the organization exercising wise and socially-responsibly judgement but had to come from staff lower down the organization in China.
Moreover, the charitable contribution averages out to just over $150 per child sickened by the poisoned milk.
Fortunately for Fonterra, Chinese consumers do not seem to associate Fonterra with tainted milk products. A consumer survey in China of 900 people found that only 3 percent regarded New Zealand in a poorer light because of the scandal, largely because most consumers do not know of Fonterra's ownership stake in Sanlu.
Parliamentary Question Time
Parliamentary Question Time, 23 Sept 2008.
Question #11: Green Party Co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimmons asks Government Minister for Food Safety Lianne Dalziel, about product labeling on country of origin and product safety on Chinese dairy products that might be tainted with melamine, a toxin found in milk produced by San Lu, a joint venture with minority ownership by New Zealand's Fonterra.
Question #11: Green Party Co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimmons asks Government Minister for Food Safety Lianne Dalziel, about product labeling on country of origin and product safety on Chinese dairy products that might be tainted with melamine, a toxin found in milk produced by San Lu, a joint venture with minority ownership by New Zealand's Fonterra.
Question #10: Opposition MP, Gerry Brownlee, National, representing Ilam in Christchurch, asks the Minister of the State Services, David Parker, why there has been a rapid expansion in government office space in Wellington, the capital.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Fonterra’s Troubles Multiply in China Poisoned Milk Scandal
Fonterra’s problems continue to mount in the melamine-tainted infant formula scandal in China involving its minority-owned San Lu joint venture.
The number of Chinese infants made ill by the toxic formula has now risen to over 13,000 hospitalised, with 4 deaths being linked to the formula. The numbers requiring clinical care but not hospitalization has climbed to greater than 54,000 children, according to the Xinhua news agency. China's chief quality supervisor Li Changjiang, director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ), has resigned. Wu Xianguo, the Communist Party chief of Shijiazhuang, the capital of northern Hebei Province was also sacked on Monday. The New Zealand government, through Prime Minister Helen Clark, has now criticised Fonterra’s ineffectual crisis management, saying that the cooperative had failed to act fast enough to alert Chinese national authorities to the health safety problem and for its 4 delay in publishing information in New Zealand on the problem, points made in earlier posts on this blog as the story broke. It’s about time the 12,000 dairy farmer stockholders of Fonterra called for the resignation or firing of the executive responsible for the mis-management of Fonterra’s interests in San Lu and the consequent loss of buyer confidence in the Fonterra brand in some international markets.
Fonterra ought to issue a public apology to its customers for its failure to ensure adequate quality control and for the harm done to its most vulnerable consumers, infants. It ought to also take concrete steps to assist in the recovery of these children. Failure to do so will demonstrate Fonterra only pays lip service to the concept of corporate social responsibility.
The number of Chinese infants made ill by the toxic formula has now risen to over 13,000 hospitalised, with 4 deaths being linked to the formula. The numbers requiring clinical care but not hospitalization has climbed to greater than 54,000 children, according to the Xinhua news agency. China's chief quality supervisor Li Changjiang, director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ), has resigned. Wu Xianguo, the Communist Party chief of Shijiazhuang, the capital of northern Hebei Province was also sacked on Monday. The New Zealand government, through Prime Minister Helen Clark, has now criticised Fonterra’s ineffectual crisis management, saying that the cooperative had failed to act fast enough to alert Chinese national authorities to the health safety problem and for its 4 delay in publishing information in New Zealand on the problem, points made in earlier posts on this blog as the story broke. It’s about time the 12,000 dairy farmer stockholders of Fonterra called for the resignation or firing of the executive responsible for the mis-management of Fonterra’s interests in San Lu and the consequent loss of buyer confidence in the Fonterra brand in some international markets.
Fonterra ought to issue a public apology to its customers for its failure to ensure adequate quality control and for the harm done to its most vulnerable consumers, infants. It ought to also take concrete steps to assist in the recovery of these children. Failure to do so will demonstrate Fonterra only pays lip service to the concept of corporate social responsibility.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Stoned - Fonterra on San Lu & Chinese Baby Poisoning
The facts updated:
Fonterra knew for 6 weeks that its Chinese joint-venture, San Lu, had been selling melamine-tainted milk used in infant formula before it informed the New Zealand government. Fonterra claims it was trying to work internally within China to get a public health authority response. Once informed, the New Zealand apparently acted decisively to alert the Chinese central government through diplomatic channels of the health risks to Chinese babies: more than 6244 of whom have contracted kidney stones, 158 are suffering acute kidney failure.
San Lu is alleged to have known as early as 2005 that its milk was being tainted with the toxin, according to a vice governor of Hebei province, Yang Chongyong.
Contrary to San Lu claims that Chinese dairy farmers had added the toxin to their milk, initial investigations now show 41 out of Sanlu's 372 own fresh milk supply centres mixed melamine in milk.
Beware corporate tainted "love"...
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Arrest of San Lu General Manager, Fonterra's Chinese Subsidiary
Chinese authorities have arrested Tian Wenhua, the general manager of San Lu, the Chinese minority ownership subsidiary of Fonterra, the New Zealand dairy multinational.
The count of infants sickened by San Lu's infant formula laced with melamine has grown to 6,244 with 158 acute cases of kidney failure.
The scandal widens in China with the government reporting that 20 percent of 109 dairy companies had product batches containing melamine.
Two Chinese dairy companies have been ordered to recall export shipments made to Yemen, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Gabon and Burundi.
The count of infants sickened by San Lu's infant formula laced with melamine has grown to 6,244 with 158 acute cases of kidney failure.
The scandal widens in China with the government reporting that 20 percent of 109 dairy companies had product batches containing melamine.
Two Chinese dairy companies have been ordered to recall export shipments made to Yemen, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Gabon and Burundi.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
New Zealand Government Blew Whistle to Chinese Goverment on Fonterra Subsidiary
In breaking news, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has announced that upon receiving notice on 5 September from Fonterra, which owns 43 percent of China-based joint venture, Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group Co Ltd, the company implicated in a tainted infant formula investigation, her government convened a senior ministerial meeting that concluded that diplomatic intervention was necessary.
The New Zealand government determined that local government officials in Hebei province, where San Lu is located, had blocked Fonterra's efforts to have a full recall of the tainted product. Fonterra is now reported to have been notified by San Lu on 2 August of the problem.
Clark's government blew the whistle on the local government obstruction to the Chinese government in Beijing on 9 September. Swift central government action has subsequently been taken by the Chinese, resulting in arrests, recall of the product, and the cessation of Sanlu production.
Babies from poor rural Chinese families are reported to be heavily represented amongst the children sickened by San Lu's "Bei Bei Infant Powder". The formula is particularly attractive to these families because of the low 18 yuan price compared to higher priced imported brands.
San Lu is reported by The South China Morning Post to have known of production problems since March, to have corrected contamination issues by 6 August, but only publicly admitted the contamination last week.
Who, one wonders, owns the majority stake in San Lu? San Lu itself has been in business over 50 years which suggests at least in the past it was a state owned enterprise. The dominant partner today is the Shijiazhuang Dairy Group. Chinese business is often linked closely to local government authorities either in terms of ownership or regulatory control, that to outsiders at least smacks of what in the past has been termed "crony capitalism", if not defunct socialism. The lesson of the socialist market economy in China continues to be that the poor, those supposedly who should receive the most political and social protection, are likely to be the last to receive it.
Fonterra still doesn't think such a significant public health problem created by one of its joint ventures for its most vulnerable consumers - infants - is worthy of an official statement on its web site, as of late 14 September. Plenty of pictures of smiling Asian children consuming milk, but no statement of responsibility or a plan of action to remedy the situation. Perhaps they'll get around to it eventually when they're good and ready.
The New Zealand government determined that local government officials in Hebei province, where San Lu is located, had blocked Fonterra's efforts to have a full recall of the tainted product. Fonterra is now reported to have been notified by San Lu on 2 August of the problem.
Clark's government blew the whistle on the local government obstruction to the Chinese government in Beijing on 9 September. Swift central government action has subsequently been taken by the Chinese, resulting in arrests, recall of the product, and the cessation of Sanlu production.
Babies from poor rural Chinese families are reported to be heavily represented amongst the children sickened by San Lu's "Bei Bei Infant Powder". The formula is particularly attractive to these families because of the low 18 yuan price compared to higher priced imported brands.
San Lu is reported by The South China Morning Post to have known of production problems since March, to have corrected contamination issues by 6 August, but only publicly admitted the contamination last week.
Who, one wonders, owns the majority stake in San Lu? San Lu itself has been in business over 50 years which suggests at least in the past it was a state owned enterprise. The dominant partner today is the Shijiazhuang Dairy Group. Chinese business is often linked closely to local government authorities either in terms of ownership or regulatory control, that to outsiders at least smacks of what in the past has been termed "crony capitalism", if not defunct socialism. The lesson of the socialist market economy in China continues to be that the poor, those supposedly who should receive the most political and social protection, are likely to be the last to receive it.
Fonterra still doesn't think such a significant public health problem created by one of its joint ventures for its most vulnerable consumers - infants - is worthy of an official statement on its web site, as of late 14 September. Plenty of pictures of smiling Asian children consuming milk, but no statement of responsibility or a plan of action to remedy the situation. Perhaps they'll get around to it eventually when they're good and ready.
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