MOMENTUM appears to have slowed for Camperdown Dairy International’s (CDI) plans for a dairy factory at Camperdown.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
CDI chief executive officer Phil McFarlane said the company expected to demolish further sections of the former Bonlac dairy company in the next three to six months, but the construction of the new CDI factory on the cleared site was likely to take place in stages over the next three to five years.
“There is a lot of business planning yet to be done,” Mr McFarlane said.
Excitement about an imminent rebirth of the landmark factory site rose in July when CDI finalised a 15-year deal worth $600 million a year to ship infant formula to China.
Mr McFarlane said in July the export deal to China meant construction on the Camperdown site would start in the next 12 to 18 months.
This week he said the time frame for construction had yet to be confirmed and the project would take three to five years to complete.
Rabobank dairy industry analyst Michael Harvey told the Dairy Inspire event at Camperdown this week that China’s dairy imports had eased, with its own production increasing, dairy consumption slowing and the Chinese economy coming off the boil.
However Mr McFarlane, who spoke at the Dairy Inspire dinner, said CDI was not experiencing any easing of demand from China for nutritional and infant milk formula. He said the company was presently focusing on its infant formula factory in the Melbourne suburb of Braeside.
Mr McFarlane also said CDI was not presently seeking a milk supply for the Camperdown factory because the two milk powder spray dryers planned for the site had yet to be built.
“We will only need to bring in a milk supply when the spray dryers are built,” he said.
While the company this year bought a large farm on the Victorian/SA border to convert to intensive dairying to supply the Camperdown facility, it did not intend to buy many more, Mr McFarlane said. CDI planned to supply the Camperdown plant with milk from its own farms and contracted from other dairy farms, he said.
Mr McFarlane said CDI was aware of the high level of interest in its plan to demolish the 34-metre high chimney on the Camperdown site and would inform the community before it occurred.
