GEA Process Engineering has been awarded a €40 million project to build a 15 t/hr whole milk powder plant for Fonterra in New Zealand. The project, known as the Darfield project, is due to be commissioned in August 2012 and will be undertaken by GEA Process Engineering New Zealand. The customer, Fonterra is a world leading exporter of dairy products processing around 90 % of New Zealand’s milk production and a major player in international dairy trade. The Darfield project is the largest project ever undertaken by GEA Process Engineering New Zealand. The project will be similar in capacity to three plants previously built by GEA for Fonterra. The scope for the Darfield project, which utilizes only GEA technology, covers milk reception, standardisation, evaporation, drying, powder transport and packing. In addition, the project includes the construction of the building that will house the plant. The plant is the sixth greenfield plant that GEA Process Engineering has supplied in New Zealand over the past four years. Fonterra’s tender process encouraged the suppliers to draw on Fonterra’s considerable experience as well as their own. “This allows the synergies arising from both parties to be combined to build on the state-of-the-art technology supplied by GEA,” says David Bower, Managing Director of GEA Process Engineering New Zealand. The driver for the new plant capacity is increased milk production in the South Island of New Zealand. The end products of the new plant will service the growing markets in Asia where the demand for milk powder products is rising.
