Adding value to dairy products
13th July 2011 by Andrew Matheson, Manila | 5 Comments
New Zealand manufactures a lot of dairy products — that’s well known. But we don’t dominate world production, as some might think. In fact we are responsible for only about 2% of global dairy output.
New Zealand cheese destined for export
But when you look at trade figures, the picture’s very different — New Zealand is the world’s biggest exporter of both butter and milk powder, and the second biggest cheese exporter after the EU. Despite being located down in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean, we’ve used more than 150 years of experience, plenty of research and technology, and a lot of innovation to become the world’s biggest dairy exporting nation.
Part of the growth in that trade has been a steady move up the value chain — from exporting dairy commodities to developing and marketing consumer products, and more value-added items such as natural flavours, specialist nutritional products and materials for biotechnology. And that trend is continuing.
The Philippines is a major dairy market for New Zealand, as I’ve commented before. Its exact ranking depends on market trends and currency fluctuations but this country, Japan and Australia all sit in about third-equal position after China and the USA. New Zealand dairy products are easy to find in your supermarket, and they are invisible ingredients in many food and nutrition products manufactured in the Philippines.
I host the regular members’ forums for the Philippines New Zealand Business Council at my residence, and at the most recent event we saw a consumer dairy product from New Zealand that’s about to be launched in the Philippines. The Easiyo home yoghurt making system is aptly named — it’s so simple that even I could use it to produce fresh, creamy yoghurt. The business council members watched a local celebrity chef whisk up some treats using the product, and in one of those classic “here’s something I prepared earlier” moments our residence chef had been making Easiyo yoghurt for several days and used it in every dish in the buffet meal. Yes, in every dish, including New Zealand’s iconic dessert the pavlova.
Yoghurt can be used in almost anything, it seems
Easiyo is now owned by one of New Zealand’s major dairy companies, Westland Milk Products, and from its large and modern plant near Auckland Easiyo exports all around the world. The company won New Zealand’s exporter of the year award just last month, which is a real feather in its cap. But the product and brand had humble beginnings, starting out 20 years ago as a husband and wife team working from their home garage. That’s a classic case of Kiwi ingenuity, or what we call the number 8 wire mentality.
Paul O’Brien, Easiyo’s CEO, was at the New Zealand embassy residence in Manila to show off his products and the Easiyo system. He’s a real enthusiast for the nutritional benefits of fresh, natural yoghurt, and a staunch advocate of the quality and purity of New Zealand dairy products. It’s great to see those products being brought to the Philippine market in a new form.
Where can we get it???
Shanny
I’m told Easiyo will be available to begin with at the specialist food store Gourdo’s and at Mercury Drug. But, the bad news, you’ll have to wait a while, perhaps until September, before it’s on sale.
Andrew
Andrew, I couldn’t help but notice that a limited product line of Griffin’s chocolate biscuits is available at Landmark supermarkets & Dollar one-price chain stores in Manila – a beneficial effect of the New Zealand-ASEAN free-trade agreement?
Hello Walter, Ambassador Matheson is on leave at the moment, but thanks for bringing this good news to our attention. A quick look at the AANZFTA tariff finder (http://asean.fta.govt.nz/tariff-finder) shows that the tariffs on biscuits from New Zealand are indeed coming down under the agreement.
Andy White (Chargé d’Affaires a.i., New Zealand Embassy)
Andy, thanks for the prompt reply – I earlier notified the ambassador that Whittaker’s chocolate is available in the local market thanks to a Pasig-based agent/distributor. Nice to see more N.Z. products on store shelves. I am particularly taken by Whittaker’s dark chocolate line like Dark Ghana bars. It’s a been a long period of time ever since Cadbury’s Dunedin-sourced product line was offered that a N.Z. confectionery brand is available.