The world, it seems, can't get enough sliced cheese - and to meet the demand, Fonterra has announced a $32 million expansion of its cheese manufacturing plant in South Taranaki.
The expansion to the Collingwood Street site in Eltham will increase the capacity to produce sliced cheese, which is used extensively in quick service restaurants for products such as hamburgers and sandwiches.
Fonterra Foodservice slice-on-slice cheese during production at Eltham. Photo: FONTERRA
Fonterra's food service director Rene Dedoncker says there's fast-growing demand for that product in Australasia, Asia and the Middle East.
He says the overall food service business has grown by 9 percent in volume over the past three years and is 11 percent more profitable.
But in China, the food service business has grown by 28 percent.
The plant currently employs 550 people and produces about 70,000 tonnes of cheese for the domestic and export markets every year.
Work on the multi-million dollar expansion is expected to be completed by mid-2015.