ANZ Focus: Fonterra financial results, Cadbury Australia Easter packaging, v2food ready meals buy and more feature in our round-up

Pricing in trouble: Fonterra predicts volatile year ahead despite stellar China and consumer products performances​

New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra has predicted a volatile year ahead despite stellar performances from its China business and consumer product portfolios in the first half of the year, especially with milk prices expected to rise in the next few months.

Fonterra recently announced its H1FY2024 interim results, reporting a strong 23% year-on-year increase in profits after tax to NZ$674mn (US$385.5mn) despite a slight revenue downturn to NZ$11.25bn (US$6.7bn).

This increase in profitability was attributed mainly to an improvement in its consumer products such as Anchor, Fernleaf and Anlene; as well as its business in Asia, particularly China.

Eggs-traordinary changes: Cadbury Australia introduces reduced-plastic packaging for Easter specials​

Mondelez International-owned Cadbury Australia has revamped the packaging for its Easter series to meet consumer demand for sustainable packaging, and as part of the firm’s long-term efforts to reduce plastic use and wastage.

The confectionery giant said that the Cadbury Hollow Hunting Egg plastic crates have been switched to 12- and 24-pack cardboard cartons, which save 131,000kg of plastic, while the plastic blister and excess cardboard in some Cadbury Easter Gift Boxes will be removed, reducing over 200,000kg of packaging.

“Packaging is one of the most prominent sustainability topics for consumers. They believe it is the responsibility of companies to provide sustainable packaging and have indicated that they’re willing to pay more to support brands who are acting to improve their impact.​

“​Although product protection is a must and plastic delivers on this, consumers are highly interested in recyclable, reduced and reusable packaging options. ​They consider that the most important action brands can​​ ​take is to ‘come up with new ways to tackle plastic waste’, and expect to see innovation in this area,” ​Stephanie Saliba, Director of Corporate and Government Affairs – Japan, Australia and New Zealand at Mondelez International, told FoodNavigator-Asia​.

Hassle-free healthy eating: Australia’s v2food eyes new avenues of growth through acquisition of ready meals brand​

Australia’s plant-based pioneer v2food is aiming to strengthen its position in the category through the acquisition of ready meals brand Soulara, with portfolio expansion and broadening sales channels as growth drivers.

The acquisition process started in September 2023 and concluded in January this year. According to Tim York, CEO of v2food, one of the main reasons for this move is the common customer base shared by plant-based and ready meals categories.

“Most of our products are ingredients that go into meals, such as burgers, sausages, mince, crumbed chicken, etc. We’ve been exploring new avenues of growth and one category we are most interested in is ready meals because we see a big overlap with the consumer demographic for plant-based foods."​

Australia’s Savvy Beverage calls for greater honesty and transparency about ingredients content among functional beverage firms​

Aussie brand Savvy Beverage has called out what it believes is the prevalence of highly priced functional beverages that contain inadequate beneficial ingredients, imploring greater honesty and transparency among companies to advance the emerging category.

Owing to research that suggests the benefits of nootropics on brain function and cognitive performance, these compounds have increasingly been applied in dietary supplements and functional foods.

An example is Australian firm Savvy Beverage​, which produces functional beverages containing vitamins, nootropics and herbal active ingredients synergistically blended to “overcome mental barriers while meeting cognitive demands”.

Plain and safe: New Zealand launches new industry food allergen labelling guidebook and checklists​

The New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has launched a new food allergen labelling guidebook targeted at food and beverage manufacturers, importers and retailers to ease companies into newly-enforced regulatory requirements.

New requirements for the labelling of food allergens on related products recently came into force on February 25 2024 by order of Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) after nearly two-decade long reviews and assessments into the subject since 2006.

The regulations were developed under the FSANZ Plain English Allergen Labelling (PEAL) proposal, and now mandate all related food firms to declare any potential allergen information in a specific format and location on food labels, and  using simple, plain English terms in bold font. 

“These are crucial changes to help people find allergen information on food labels more quickly and easily, so they can make informed and safe food choices,”​ FSANZ told us.