Fonterra COO Delivers a Talk to the Pakistan - New Zealand Chamber of Businesses and Professionals

Fonterra Chief Operating Officer for International Farming Ventures, Peter Moore delivered a talk to the Pakistan – New Zealand Chamber of Businesses and Professionals on 6 June 2012 at Auckland, New Zealand.

Business persons and professionals from various ethnic communities were present at the talk.

Mr Mir Ikram Ul Haq, the Chairman of the Chamber welcomed Peter Moore to the Chamber. Mr Qaiser Rashid, Chief Executive of the Chamber gave a brief presentation on the Pakistan Dairy industry and Opportunities in the various sectors of dairy industry in Pakistan.

Hon Federal Minister of State and Chairman Board of Investment of Pakistan, Mr Saleem H Mandviwalla sent personalised messages to the Chamber and Peter Moore of Fonterra. His messages were read by Dr Zulfiqar Haider Butt.

Peter Moore, in his talk gave an overview of Fonterra, New Zealand’s largest company and talked broadly about Fonterra’s strategies with regards to its growth plans internationally. He emphasised that it usually took Fonterra several years to kick start its operations in new countries after countries were added in Fonterra’s business strategy. Peter’s talk covered Fonterra’s success in Australia, Brazil, USA, and China. However, as Peter mentioned  there were challenges in countries such as India, where Fonterra currently only had one Joint Venture, but was looking at setting up a demonstration farm in Nellore.; Peter mentioned,  “you need to adjust your plans for each geography and while 3,000 milking cow farms are possible in China, in India it is more likely that farms will be less than 1,000 cows”. Peter discussed the process for developing farms in new geographies, starting with a small pilot to test the theories and systems and when successful the business could be expanded. Peter advised the Chamber that Pakistan was not in Fonterra’s three years business strategy currently, but this could change. However, as Peter said, Fonterra will moves rather incrementally in exploring any global opportunities including Pakistan.

Qaiser Rashid said that Pakistan was at the verge of dairy boom, where overseas companies from countries such as Netherland were already taking huge interest in Pakistan towards setting up dairy projects. A Pakistan company was already setting-up a large dairy farm of 3,500 cattle jointly with Innovation Waikato, New Zealand. Qaiser further mentioned there were no issues with land and other resources in Pakistan and environment to set-up dairy farms in Pakistan was rather more conducive given Pakistan was a fifth largest producer of Milk throughout the world.

In his message Federal Minister of State, Pakistan Hon Saleem S Mandviwalla said to Fonterra that “The very attractive feature of Pakistan including our strategic geographical location, 3 seaports, the 6^th largest population of the world, 5-year tax holiday, liberal profit repatriation, 100% foreign equity options and 0-5% duty on plant and machinery make it a land of many splendours and opportunities. Foreign investors seeking a competitive manufacturing environment, mega projects promising healthy returns and skilled human resources in a growing market, are welcome to explore the vast opportunities available in the country”.

Col (Retired) Gul Khan gave a word of thanks to the attendees.

Alongside various business persons and professionals, Mr Jeremy D Slezak, Political and Economic Officer of united States Consulate General, Auckland; Dr Andrew Murphy, Associate Head of School of Communication, Journalism, & Marketing, Massey University, Auckland; Mr William Ulugia, Regional Labour market Manager, Work and Income MSD, Auckland; Dr Zaheer Ud Din Babar, Head of Pharmacy Practice in the School of Pharmacy, University of Auckland, Auckland; Chris Timmerman, Director, NZ Bio-Energy Solutions, TAUPO; Mr Taufik A Khan, Managing Director Ahmed Associate Rice Mills, Vice Chairman [2011] Rice Association Pakistan; Mark Green, Managing Director, Eye Level Marketing and Distribution Limited, Auckland; Peter Cooper, Visavant, Auckland; and Luigi Wewege, South African Business Council, Auckland attended the event.