Blue River reaches out to Indonesian market for sheep milk powder
By Peter Owens
Recently Blue River Dairy LP won the Ministry of Primary Industries’ “Healthier Choice “category at the New Zealand Food Awards for its Blue River Sheep Milk Powder. Finalists were judged on technical excellence, innovation, consumer appeal, flavour and packaging.
The company has recently invested in a milk powder canning plant at Invercargill and has now provided a range of baby formulas to its Asian exports.
Blue River Dairy LP is a joint venture between a Southland farmer and a prominent Indonesian family. The southern company is focussed on a little known attribute of the sheep; the provision of milk products – and the company is doing very well indeed.
For thousands of years people on the rim of the Mediterranean and on its islands have had dairy sheep products as part of their staple diet. The owners of a southern company at Balclutha had milked East Friesian sheep for their base product. The supply was adequate but the cheese the owners, who were marketing to people of Mediterranean background in Australia was inconsistent in supply and quality. There were also serious management problems.
The enterprise was about to collapse when Southland farmer/entrepreneur, Keith Neylon, bought the undertaking in 2004 and transferred the entire operation to Invercargill. Neylon knew an ice cream operation had closed but that its export-approved plant was still there—inoperative but ready to go. He acquired this plant and set about re-jigging the entire sheep milk operation. This included a major worldwide research programme into sheep milking and its technology
The whole operation then became integrated vertically. Blue River Dairy Products Limited (100 percent Neylon owned) was the manufacturing and distribution arm. This company was supplied by another Neylon-owned company with top quality dairy sheep milk as and when required. Mr Neylon had seen that the inconsistency of supply and quality had limited the scope of the marketing of the product and he was determined that this would not happen again.
On acquiring the company, Keith Neylon bought and converted a dairy farm at Brydone into a dairy sheep milking facility. East Friesian sheep were the base breed but since then other breeds of sheep, including Poll Dorsets, have been introduced to the milking flocks. However, since 2004 when the Brydone farm was converted, the production base has expanded and there are also farms and state-of-the-art milking facilities at Winton and recently at Hedgehope.
Because of a close business association with Asian markets, Keith Neylon saw there was a vast potential market in Asia and set about marketing his sheep milk products into China. This is a very difficult and indeed unforgiving market for those who fail. However it is rewarding for those who succeed.
Mr Neylon and his team succeeded and have built up a strong Chinese and Thai market for sheep milk products. However Neylon then found the business had to expand and this meant more capital. He disposed of his substantial deer industry and thoroughbred racing interests, including a racehorse training establishment at Burnham near Christchurch.
Mr Neylon saw that just to the north of New Zealand is the rapidly expanding Indonesian market of over 243 million people. Like China it has a ballooning middle class that is clamouring for quality protein-based products and has the money to pay for them. He was realistic enough to know that once again it was case of supplying top quality product, as and when required, with consistency of quality and supply.
Once again capital was required for expansion and late in 2011, Mr Nylon sold a 50 percent share in the Blue River Group of companies to the well-known Tachril Family of Jakarta which has strong links with New Zealand.
The capital released by this sale was used for research and development into new milking sheep technologies and in the construction of a new space-age milking facility at Hedgehope not far from Winton in Southland.
This sale was applauded by prime minister Key who said –“There’s a massive market out there. It’s one thing to recognise the market – it’s another to have the tentacles to reach into it.”
The result is that today Blue River has what no other sheep unit in New Zealand has – a revolutionary new milking technology, a genetically selected milking flock of 14,000 sheep, an export approved processing plant and over 50 employees.
After the sale of 50 percent of its undertaking, Blue River Dairy Products Limited also underwent a change of name. It is now known as Blue River Dairy LP.
Under that name it is producing five varieties of sheep cheese. Two of these are of the feta variety which is the best-known dairy cheese. A white, salty and crumbly cheese this has been made around the Mediterranean for thousands of years. It is referred to by Homer in the Odyssey. These two varieties are branded as Tussock Creek and Vintage Feta. The company also produces Monowai Haloumi and Blackmount Cheddar, as well as Curio Bay Pecorino.
All products are gluten free and there is also a significant market for powdered sheep milk in both the export and domestic markets.
Blue River LP, thanks to the foresight and entrepreneurial skills of Keith Neylon, which have been recognised by the Tachril Family, provides a new dimension to the sheep industry of New Zealand and a new food product for the burgeoning Asian market.
