Westland Milk Products, a dairy company based in New Zealand, has obtained a NZ$70 million (approximately $43 million) investment to construct a new facility for the production of bioactive dairy products.
Westland’s parent company, the Yili Group, provided the funding for the investment, which will be utilized to establish a new lactoferrin plant at Westland’s Hokitika site.
Lactoferrin, a milk protein, is experiencing a rise in global demand due to its reported health benefits in various nutritional categories.
Westland stated that the funding will increase the production capacity of the Hokitika site’s multifunctional protein by more than three times.
Westland Resident Director, Zhiqiang Li, said, “Westland is the only New Zealand commercial manufacturer of bovine colostrum powder, and this move will place us in the top three leading global companies in the lactoferrin category, with a market share of approximately 10%”.
Westland’s CEO, Richard Wyeth, added, “We cannot improve on the incredible quality of the natural product our farmers produce day after day, but we can ensure that we extract maximum value for that product, and our lactoferrin strategy is a critical part of that”.
He continued, “Our bioactive ingredients innovation pipeline is well advanced, and we’re excited to be a step closer to bringing these concepts to commercialisation”.
According to Westland, the addition of spray-dried lactoferrin – in combination with the company’s freeze-dried lactoferrin range – will position the dairy company as “one of the only lactoferrin manufacturers in the world capable of producing both formats on the one site”.
The construction of the new plant is estimated to take 16 months and is projected to commence in the first half of 2024.
