New Zealand dairy giant to establish farm in India

WELLINGTON - New Zealand’s Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd, the world’s biggest dairy exporter, signed a joint venture agreement Friday to look into establishing a dairy farm in India.

Fonterra’s partners in the new project are the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Co-operative (IFFCO), which includes more than 50 million farmers in 39,500 co-operatives, and Global Dairy Health, India, an organisation set up to develop a global franchise of dairy farms and improve milk quality in Asia and Africa.

They signed an agreement to jointly conduct a feasibility study into a pilot dairy farm in India “as a first step towards the vision of establishing large-scale world-class dairy farms in India”, the statement said.

Fronterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier said a pilot farm could have 3,000 to 5,000 cows and be similar to one it set up in China in 2007.

China and India are seen as the world’s fastest-growing and potentially biggest markets for milk products.

IFFCO is the world’s largest co-operative fertiliser manufacturer has diversified into other sectors, including insurance, power generation and distribution of rural mobile telephone services.