Malaysia’s fresh dairy producer Farm Fresh will be able to have an additional 30,000 litres of fresh milk a day once its newly acquired dairy farm in Melbourne, Australia becomes fully operational, said Farm Fresh operations director Azmi Zainal in an interview with the Malay daily Sinar Harian on 21 May 2018. The company is spending RM 45 million on the Australian farm.
At the moment, the company has 35,000 litres of fresh milk a day with 30% supplied by a partner farm in Larkin, Johor. The remaining 70% is supplied by its own farms in Mawai, Kota Tinggi in Johor and Muadzam Shah in Pahang.
The reason for purchasing the Australian farm is because the Holstein breed, which produces the most milk, cannot be imported into Malaysia, said Azmi. The Australia farm is designed to meet the rising demand for fresh milk in Malaysia.
He also said that Farm Fresh has a 121.4-hectare farm known as Lembah Tenusu Desaru in Kota Tinggi which will house around 600 Australian Friesian Sahiwal cows. This dairy cow breed is able to withstand Malaysia’s hot temperature.
As reported by Sinar Harian, Farm Fresh currently has 3,500 dairy cows of which 70% are Australian Friesian Sahiwal and 30% Jersey Cross.
Farm Fresh also exports to Singapore and aims to become the biggest milk producer in Southeast Asia. In Malaysia, the company has 22 stockists across the country with 314 official distributors in addition to having its products presence in most supermarkets.
Azmi added Farm Fresh expects a 20% rise in revenue in 2018 compared with 2017 where the company’s sales reached RM 120 million. Its share of the fresh milk market in Malaysia in 2015 stood at 39%.
