Goodman Fielder has finished a three-year expansion of its Meadow Fresh milk plant in Upper Riccarton, Christchurch, spending more than $100 million to make more long-life UHT and high-protein dairy drinks for New Zealand shoppers and for buyers in China and Southeast Asia.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon officially opened the site’s new High Value Dairy Centre on Thursday 10 September, the NZ Herald reported. In its announcement, Goodman Fielder said the centre is at the heart of the investment and lifts its capacity to make high-value UHT products for both the home market and export, including high-protein milk for China and Southeast Asia.
UHT stands for ultra-high temperature. The milk is sterilised with a short burst of heat and packed in a sterile container, which gives it a typical unrefrigerated shelf life of six to nine months, compared with about two weeks for ordinary pasteurised milk.
The Christchurch spending covers a research and development pilot plant for new products, ultra-filtration equipment for high-protein dairy products and an automated pallet racking system to move finished goods through the supply chain. The expansion has created 25 jobs, taking the Christchurch workforce to 280. Across Christchurch and the company’s other Meadow Fresh site at Longburn in Palmerston North, more than 500 people work in the dairy business, and the two plants handle more than 250 million litres of milk a year.
Goodman Fielder New Zealand chief executive Bernard Duignan called the expansion an important step in the growth of the Meadow Fresh business. “The investment in this plant is a response to growing domestic and export demand and reflects our confidence in New Zealand’s ability to produce world-leading, high-quality dairy products that are valued both here at home and around the world,” Duignan said.
“Through this expansion, we’re increasing our capability to manufacture innovative, high-value dairy products and creating opportunities to add more value in New Zealand, as well as take New Zealand-made products to more international customers and markets,” Duignan said.
The export push rests on a supply deal the company announced last year. In a July 2025 statement, Goodman Fielder said it would expand the Christchurch UHT facility with investment in high-protein processing and more capacity, adding about 25 roles, to support a long-term supply partnership with Yihai Kerry Arawana for the Chinese retail market. That agreement includes supply to Sam’s Club in China. Yihai Kerry Arawana is a subsidiary of Wilmar International, and Wilmar also owns Goodman Fielder, so the Christchurch milk bound for Chinese shelves is moving between two arms of the same group.
Sydney-based Goodman Fielder was formed in 1986 from the merger of Allied Mills and Goodman Group. A joint venture of Wilmar International and First Pacific took it over in March 2015 for A$1.3 billion, and Wilmar bought First Pacific’s half share in 2019, according to the company’s history. Goodman Fielder says Wilmar and Goodman Fielder have put about $300 million into New Zealand manufacturing, technology and people over the past five years. It employs about 1,700 people at 12 manufacturing sites here, making brands such as Meadow Fresh, Puhoi Valley, Vogel’s, Molenberg, Edmonds and Chelsea Sugar.
This is not the company’s first big bet on UHT milk in Christchurch. In June 2014 Goodman Fielder announced a $27 million upgrade of the same plant, with a new pasteurising, sterilising and palletising line and a new 250ml high-speed filler. The work was expected to be finished by October 2015 and to lift production at the site by 50 percent, an extra 32 million litres a year. “The premium UHT category in Asia Pacific is anticipated to grow by around 50 percent over the next five years,” then chief executive Chris Delaney said in June 2014.
Official trade figures show the wider market the plant sells into is still growing, although they cannot isolate UHT milk. Stats NZ’s overseas trade indexes group liquid milk and milk powder together in a single milk and cream category. Newswire’s analysis of that series shows milk and cream exports earned $14.7 billion in the year to June 2026, up 6.2 percent on the year before, while export volumes rose 4.3 percent. In the year to June 2002 the same category earned $3.4 billion. Across all dairy and casein products, exports reached $25.3 billion in the year to June 2026.
The opening also lands as Canterbury firms report firmer plans to spend. Business Canterbury’s quarterly survey, released on 8 September, found 71 percent of businesses plan to invest in property, plant and equipment over the coming year and 68 percent expect to hire more staff.
Duignan tied the Christchurch investment to the region’s farms and infrastructure. “Christchurch and Canterbury, with their growing dairy industry and strong infrastructure, continue to play an important role in Meadow Fresh’s manufacturing operations and future growth,” he said. Meadow Fresh has been making dairy products in New Zealand for more than 60 years, according to the company, and sells into the Pacific and Southeast Asia as well as at home.
Do you buy UHT milk, or have you spotted New Zealand dairy brands on supermarket shelves overseas? Tell us in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
Leave a Reply