Van Diemen’s Land dairy properties to export milk from Tasmania to China

The plan was announced by the Chinese owners of the company Moon Lake Investments in Hobart on Wednesday.

The company aims to use 10 per cent of its milk production for the new fresh milk branded product unveiled as VAN milk.

The milk will be made at VDL’s Woolnorth dairy farms and then trucked to Hobart to be processed by Lion at Lenah Valley. After processing the milk will be bottled and packaged and flown from Hobart airport to China.

VDL is the country’s oldest dairy company and owns a property at Woolnorth, made of 25 dairy farms and a dairy support unit that includes a heifer rearing operation.

The company also owns a handful of dairy farms outside the gates of the Woolnorth property at other parts of Circular Head.

Moon Lake managing director Sean Shwe said VAN milk was the first step towards the vision of Moon Lake’s owner Lu Xianfeng who wanted to use the acquisition of VDL to create a “trade bridge” with China.

“A journey of one thousand miles starts with a single step,” Mr Shwe said.

Mr Shwe described the announcement of VAN milk as a “game changer” not only for the company but also for other exporters in Tasmania.

“VAN is a brand and a logo but we believe it is much more than that,” he said.

Three small shipments of the product were sent to China in the past three months to Ningbo in China. All three shipments were received positively by the market consumers.

Moon Lake Investments secured the acquisition of VDL in March after a lengthy sale process in 2015.

Controversy surrounded the sale after a bid by Tasmanian company TasFoods was rejected by VDL’s previous owners, the New Plymouth District Council in New Zealand, in favour of one made by Moon Lake.

Mr Shwe said the company would promise a “chain of custody” for the VAN milk product that would lead directly from Circular Head to China, the largest export market in the world.

“From the first time we came to Tasmania we instantly fell in love with the clean and green image it offers,” Mr Shwe said.

The majority of Tasmanian milk products are not used for fresh milk but are instead used to create other non-branded dairy products such as cheese, milk powder and yoghurt.

VDL produces about 100,000L of milk each year and its expected the VAN fresh milk will use about 10,000L of that production.

Milk from VDL is processed by Fonterra but the VAN milk will be processed by Lion because of Lion’s export licence and capabilities.

Mr Shwe did not confirm there would be expansion at the Woolnorth site to cope with the demand but said they were looking to implement quality assurance processes first. However he did not rule it out either.

Premier Will Hodgman said the plan was a great opportunity to sell the Tasmanian brand to the largest export market in the world.

“VAN can become a key trade bridge partner for other Tasmanian exporters, taking advantage of distribution channels, warehousing, cold chain logistics and significant business introductions,” he said.

Mr Hodgman said discussions were still ongoing to secure the airline that would carry the milk cargo but said it would open up opportunities for other exporters.

“The flights will also carry other high quality perishable Tasmania food and create an extraordinary opportunity for Tasmanian premium exporters into China,” he said.

He said milk production in Tasmania had grown by 40 per cent in the last decade.

The Chinese owner of Van Diemen’s Land dairy properties will start fresh milk exports to China under a new brand VAN Milk.

Moon Lake Investments managing director Sean Shwe unveiled the VAN brand and details of the company’s plans for direct flights to ship fresh milk from Hobart Airport to Ningbo in China.

Three shipments of VAN Milk have been sent to China in the past three months for testing as part of the regulatory requirements to export products to the country.

The success of the trial shipments paves the way for the company to export milk from the VDL Farms – Australia’s biggest dairy property.

Mr Shwe said negotiations with a number of airline companies and airports to initially fly weekly round trips from Hobart to Ningbo starting in the first quarter of 2017, with a view to increasing the frequencies to 2-3 times per week in 12 months, were at an advanced stage.

This will open Tasmania’s first regular international air freight route to Asia.

“This is an exciting venture for our company, VDL Farms and potentially for all Tasmanian producers of fresh, perishable produce such as sea food, fruit and vegetables,” Mr Shwe said.

“It will be a game changer for Tasmania and Moon Lake and VAN are proud to be leading the charge,” he said.

About 10 million litres of milk – about 10 percent  of VDL’s annual milk production – will be processed under contract by Lion Dairy in Hobart which is currently Tasmania’s only licensed export pasteurized milk processor with the scale Moon Lake requires.

The Advocate