GEA Process Engineering
has received an order for building the world’s largest dairy spray dryer from
Fonterra in New Zealand. The order is one of the largest ever for GEA Process
Engineering amounting to more than EUR 70 million.
When this dairy spray dryer is
completed by August 2013 everything about it will be
massive. The plant will have a
capacity of 30 t/hr. of whole milk powder equivalent to more than 4.4 million
l/day of milk. This means that approx. 260,000 cows must be milked each day on
average and that around 200 milk tankers are required to carry the milk to the
plant.
“GEA Process Engineering
has been in the business of developing and supplying dairy spray dryers for
nearly 80 years now and we see dairy as one of our most important markets.
Therefore, we have a continued focus on innovation and see this milestone order
as proof of our leading technological position,” says Niels Erik Olsen, Executive Vice President and
Segment Board member at GEA Process Engineering.
Fonterra is a world leading
exporter of dairy products, processing around 90% of New Zealand’s milk.
Fonterra is also a major player in the international dairy industry where
Fonterra produces and trades approx. 40% of all traded whole milk
powder.
The new project will be
named Darfield D2 and is the second of two plants on the Darfield green-field
site which GEA Process Engineering has undertaken for Fonterra. The scope of
the project which only utilises GEA process technology covers milk reception,
standardisation, evaporation, drying, powder transport and packing. The plant
will be the seventh green-field plant supplied by GEA Process Engineering in
New Zealand over the past five years.
GEA Process Engineering is
currently working on the first stage of the Darfield dairy, called Darfield
D1.
“Both parties are working
well together on the Darfield D1 project, which is well under way, and
naturally we are happy that we have also been awarded this second project at
the Darfield site. Now that we have signed the deal with Fonterra, our
employees and I are thrilled, and we cannot wait to start this new major
project,” says David
Bower, Managing Director of GEA Process Engineering New Zealand.
The end products of the new
plant will service the growing markets in the Middle East, South East Asia and
China, where the demand for milk powder products is rising.
Further
information
For further
information please contact David Bower, Managing Director for GEA Process
Engineering New Zealand, direct No.: +64 9 5263344.
About GEA Process
Engineering
GEA Process
Engineering develops, designs and markets production plant equipment and
processes for the dairy, brewery, food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries.
With sales close to EUR 1.6 billion in 2011 and more than 5,000 employees
working in more than 40 countries, GEA Process Engineering is recognised as a
world leader within liquid processing, concentration, industrial drying, powder
processing & handling, emission control, solid dosage forms & sterile
products and aseptic packaging. GEA Process Engineering is a business segment
of GEA Group, headquartered in Germany.
About Fonterra
Fonterra is a global
leader in dairy nutrition – the preferred supplier of dairy ingredients to many
of the world’s leading food companies. Fonterra is also a market leader with
its own consumer dairy brands in Australia/New Zealand, Asia/Africa, Middle
East and Latin America.
The farmer-owned New Zealand co-operative is the
largest processor of milk in the world, producing more than two million tons of dairy
ingredients, value added dairy ingredients, specialty ingredients and consumer
products every year. Drawing on generations of dairy expertise, Fonterra is one
of the largest investors in dairy based research and innovation in the world.
More than 16,000 staff work across the dairy spectrum from advising farmers on
sustainable farming and milk production, to ensuring that Fonterra lives up to
exacting quality standards and delivering every day on its customer promise in
more than 100 markets around the world. For further information www.fonterra.com