Innovation Abroad, Opportunities at Home
When a global dairy cooperative with more than 14,000 farmer members makes a major investment in Asia, it’s worth paying attention in New Zealand.
FrieslandCampina Ingredients has opened a new state-of-the-art application centre in Singapore, expanding its research and development footprint in the Asia-Pacific by 30 percent. On the face of it, this may seem distant from our paddocks and farmyards but the implications reach right back to the New Zealand dairy sector and the wider rural economy.
The new facility is designed to be a hub for innovation in nutrition, building on Singapore’s role as the company’s Asia-Pacific headquarters since 2011. FrieslandCampina, a cooperative of farmers in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, is well known globally for turning milk into high-value ingredients and its Singapore base is its only development centre outside Europe. By enlarging its application centre, the cooperative is signalling that this region is central to its growth. For New Zealand farmers and contractors who already rely on Asia as a key export destination, the move underlines how much competition and opportunity is emerging in food and nutrition markets right on our doorstep.
The facility is not just about building laboratories for the sake of science. It is equipped to develop functional foods such as yoghurts, snack bars, beverages and dietary supplements, and it brings together expertise in ultra-high temperature processing, sensory science, packaging and analytical testing. In short, it is a full-service platform to speed up the journey from concept to consumer. That’s a lesson worth noting for our own processors and exporters. Asia’s middle classes are increasingly focused on health, wellbeing and nutrition and they are willing to pay for products that meet those needs. FrieslandCampina Ingredients is betting that by being close to the market it can tailor solutions faster.
Tjalling Bekker, Regional Director APAC at FrieslandCampina Ingredients, put it plainly:
“The APAC market is changing rapidly. Consumers are prioritising daily health, emotional wellness and beauty-from-within. Our new application centre will help our customers succeed in this fast-moving and growing market by accelerating application development and enabling closer collaboration so we can navigate these exciting opportunities together.”
For New Zealand exporters, that comment is both a warning and an invitation. If our co-operatives and food companies do not innovate, others will fill the space.
It is easy to see parallels with New Zealand’s own challenges and opportunities. We have long sold milk powders and basic commodities into Asia, but the direction of travel is towards functional foods, specialty nutrition and premium consumer products. Whether it is infant formula, performance nutrition, or health supplements the competition is no longer about who can produce the cheapest volume but who can deliver science-backed tailored solutions. The rise of application centres like FrieslandCampina’s in Singapore highlights the importance of investing not just in on-farm productivity but in research, development and marketing that connects us directly with end consumers.
The Singapore Economic Development Board was quick to hail the investment, with Melissa Guan, Vice President and Head of Consumer describing the centre as “a valuable addition to our vibrant food and nutrition ecosystem” and noting that it would accelerate co-development efforts with customers “to support health and well-being outcomes across all life stages.”
That comment underlines another important point for New Zealand: governments in the region are actively working to attract and anchor global food companies. While New Zealand has deep agricultural expertise, our policy framework has not always kept pace with supporting innovation in food science and advanced nutrition. If we want to compete in these growing segments, it will take more than pasture and milk tankers; it will take alignment between science, industry and government.
For rural contractors and farmers in New Zealand, why does this matter? Because our long-term prosperity depends on where the value is captured in the supply chain. Selling milk as a commodity locks us into cycles of price volatility. Creating products that meet health and lifestyle needs in Asia allows us to capture more stable and higher margins. The Dutch farmers who supply FrieslandCampina are part of a cooperative model not unlike our own. Their milk is transformed into high-value ingredients that feed into the booming wellness and nutrition market. That model helps maximise the return for their members. For us, the challenge is whether we are equally committed to pushing beyond the commodity trap and investing in the partnerships and infrastructure that can get us into those higher-value niches.
It is also worth reflecting on how FrieslandCampina links its investment to community outcomes. The new centre will not just house laboratories; it will also create jobs, nurture local talent through internships and partner with organisations to promote healthy lifestyles. For instance, the company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Singapore’s Health Promotion Board and has worked with ActiveSG on initiatives to encourage healthy eating among children. In other words, it is embedding itself in the region not just as a seller of ingredients but as a participant in the health agenda. That is a reminder for New Zealand agribusinesses that in today’s marketplace, social licence and alignment with local goals are critical. It is no longer enough to sell a product; companies must demonstrate how they contribute to the wellbeing of the communities they serve.
The cooperative itself has a long pedigree. Formed from the collective efforts of more than 14,000 dairy farmers across three countries, FrieslandCampina processed 9 billion kilograms of member milk in 2024 and achieved revenues of 12.9 billion euros. It has operations in 30 countries and employs almost 20,000 people. That scale allows it to invest in cutting-edge facilities like Singapore’s new application centre. For a smaller dairy nation like ours, the lesson is that cooperation and collective effort matter if we want to compete globally. Fragmentation weakens our ability to invest in the kind of research and development that can keep pace with international players.
At the same time, New Zealand has its own advantages. Our reputation for grass-fed, pasture-based production remains strong. Our food safety systems are trusted. And our geographic proximity to Asia gives us a logistical edge. If we can match those strengths with innovation in nutrition and functional foods, we can maintain and even expand our role as a supplier of choice. But if we rest on the idea that bulk commodities will carry us forward, we risk losing ground to cooperatives like FrieslandCampina that are already embedding themselves more deeply in the region.
Ultimately, the opening of a new research centre in Singapore may not make headlines on farm here in New Zealand, but it should. It tells us where the dairy world is heading: towards health, nutrition and value-added products. It also tells us that the competition is moving closer to our key markets and becoming more agile. For farmers and contractors, it reinforces the point that what we do in the paddock is only the first link in a chain that stretches all the way to consumers in Jakarta, Seoul, or Tokyo. How that chain is managed and how much value we capture along the way, will shape the future of our sector.
The question, then, is how New Zealand responds. Do we double down on being a volume player, or do we take the harder road of innovation, science and partnerships to move up the value chain? FrieslandCampina’s investment in Singapore is a reminder that the latter path is where the real rewards lie. It is a call for us to think not just about litres of milk produced, but about the nutritional solutions and wellbeing outcomes we can deliver to the world. That is the challenge and the opportunity that sits before us.