New 'pipeline' to deliver fresh Australian milk to China

A new partnership has slashed the length of time it takes fresh milk to travel from Australian farms to Chinese fridges.

Milk processor Norco and international exporting company Peloris Global Sourcing (PGS), in conjunction with industry group Dairy Connect NSW, have managed to reduce the time it takes fresh Australian milk to reach Chinese consumers from an average of 14-21 days to 7 days, significantly increasing shelf life once the products hit Chinese shelves.

Norco and PGS have delivered a trial shipment of nearly 1000 litres of fresh milk to China in a new cold chain ‘pipeline’. Dairy Connect Chairman George Davey AM says the commercially viable cold chain pipeline will open the door for millions of litres of fresh milk exports to China each year.

The breakthrough has come after 12 months of collaboration between PGS and China officials to develop rigorous quality assurance protocols that have now been fully tested and officially sanctioned by the relevant Chinese agencies. As a consequence, the PGS cold chain pipeline has been supported by changes to existing China import clearance procedures to accommodate the limited shelf life of fresh milk imports from Australia.

Norco Chairman Greg McNamara says the pipeline has the capacity to deliver more than 20 million litres of fresh milk to Chinese consumers within the first 12 months of operation. Commercial shipments of Norco’s full range of fresh milk products will commence next week.

“The cold chain pipeline solution incorporates stringent quality assurance controls that ensure the fresh milk meets or exceeds China’s food health and safety standards, that the product is maintained at the optimal temperature at all times during transit, and incorporates an innovative product security system that identifies and tracks the location of individual units,” said Peter Verry, PGS managing director.

“This could be a real game changer,” said Brian Tessmann, president of the Queensland Dairyfarmers’ Organisation (QDO). “This is especially the case for the northern dairy industry, including NSW and Queensland, where we predominantly specialise in fresh drinking milk production for the domestic market and currently have very limited capacity for other export avenues such as milk powder or cheese.

“With the news that Norco is planning commercial shipments of fresh milk soon, this will help open another, potentially major high value, export door for Norco farmers.”