The dairy giant announced in a press release yesterday it would build a new UHT cream plant at its Edendale site.
Southland Mayor Rob Scott said it was "fantastic" news.
"The addition of 70 jobs in that plant is awesome."
It was another notch in the belt for Southland’s economy, which was already outperforming the big cities, he said.
In July, ASB’s regional economic scoreboard showed Southland as the strongest growing region in New Zealand — knocking Auckland off top spot.
Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell shared the news while in Malaysia on a senior New Zealand business delegation with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
The investment was part of the co-operative’s strategy to grow further value by expanding its foodservice business in Asia and increasing production capacity for high-value products.
"Demand for UHT cream continues to strengthen.
"Globally, we’re expecting demand to increase by more than 4% year-on-year between 2023 and 2032.
"This is the second announcement we’ve made in as many weeks about expansions at our sites to cater for growing demand.
"We believe prioritising our ingredients and foodservice channels will create more value for Fonterra and this expansion is a good example of the direction the co-op is heading.
"The new plant will initially create upward of 50 million litres of UHT processing capacity with the capacity to grow beyond 100 million litres by 2030."
Chief operating officer Anna Palairet said the Edendale site was well set up for future growth with decarbonisation work under way along with a good supply of high-quality cream in the region.
"The additional processing capacity will allow us to manufacture more UHT cream products and grow value for farmers.
"Adding to the six new roles created through the recently announced expansion at our Studholme site, we will create an additional 70 new jobs with this new plant at Edendale.
"This is great news for the local community."
Additional employment opportunities will also be created through the construction phase, which is scheduled to start early next year.
The first product is expected to come off the line in August 2026.
