Punjab may have venture with New Zealand’s dairy giant

CHANDIGARH - Milkfed, a leading milk cooperative society in Punjab, is contemplating signing a joint venture with Fonterra, New Zealand’s dairy giant, an official said Sunday.

On the invitation of Punjab government’s department of cooperation, a two-member team comprising Fonterra’s general manager (international operation) David Broad and sales manager Hamish Govans were here Thursday.

“Fonterra officials have visited dairy farms and milk procurement societies of our milk unions in Ludhiana and Mohali. They were also shown our milk processing facility at Ludhiana and thoroughly explained the working of our cooperative dairy sector,” said an official spokesman of the Punjab cooperation department.

“Their response was quite encouraging as Fonterra officials have shown keen interest in the dairy cooperative system of Punjab and especially in the working of the Milkfed. They were also very impressed with the dairy farming pattern in the state,” he said.

Officials of Fonterra also visited cattle feed plant and a modern semen station at Khanna town, he said.

“We shared our experiences of development of dairy farms in countries like China and Sri Lanka so that those ideas could also be replicated here. We had also discussed various possibilities for establishing big dairy farms in Punjab by using our expertise in this field,” said Broad here Sunday.