It is also looking into the possibility of its Australian operation becoming a co-operative.
Chief executive Theo Spierings told the co-operative’s annual general meeting in Hawera on Thursday that Fonterra’s reputation had climbed from 9th to 5th in the RepZ survey and had «changed the minds of 1.5 million New Zealanders.»
The dairy giant launched a charm offensive last year, using charismatic leaders such as Richie McCaw to promote its work.
Over the past year Fonterra has become the largest milk collector in Australia as major competitor Murray Goulbourn (MG) has faltered.
Last week Canadian company Saputo announced it would buy MG for $1.46 billion. Fonterra’s offer to create a super co-operative was spurned and it is not clear yet whether it will make a counter offer.
Spierings said Fonterra Australia has reached full milk processing capacity at 2 billion litres a year and would invest an initial $100m immediately to provide a further 500 million litres of capacity.
It projected expanding to taking 3 billion litres a year in the near future, based on a growing demand for cheese and nutritional products such as infant formula.
By contrast New Zealand farmers supplied 21,196 billion litres to the co-op last year.
It would evaluate the opportunity of introducing the co-op model. Australian dairy farmers have been unhappy with their treatment at the hands of Fonterra, following the poor 2015-16 payout, and there have been calls for it to become a co-op.
Spierings’ comments recently that Fonterra was taking cash out of Australia to give back to its New Zealand shareholders did not go down well across the Tasman.
A Fonterra spokesman said its growth predictions were unchanged following its failure to buy MG.
Spierings outlined a vision for Fonterra over the next 10 years. At present it was focused on the «velocity» strategy, but in five years it would become an «innovative co-op» and after 10 years it would be a «sustainable co-op».
Next year he pledged to focus on delivering the China and Beingmate partnership «at full potential», and revitalise the Anlene brand.
Last year 1 billion litres of milk had been shifted from commodities to higher value consumer, foodservice and advanced ingredients.
Chairman John Wilson said the last year had been challenging but ultimately rewarding.
«We started the year facing a third season with very low milk prices but we ended it with the fourth highest total cash available for payout in our co-op’s history. The payout of $6.52kg/MS was up 52 per cent on the year before.»
He said peak milk had arrived on October 26 at just under 82 million litres, up 2.5 per cent on last year but flat for the year so far.