Page 34 - Food & Drink Business Jan-Feb 2020

DAIRY BUSINESS
THE Asian-style milk tea market launched in Australia around six years ago and has been growing ever since.
NineCha directors Jay Shao and Sean Issell come from very different backgrounds, operations and sales for Shao, retail buying for Issell, but they both saw the opportunity for an Australian-made product.
“9Cha is a game changer,” Shao says. “There were no Australian-made products available in the pre-pack format that could be bought and drunk off the shelf. Everything in the market had been imported.”
According to Allied Market Research, the global bubble/ milk tea market was worth US$1.95 billion in 2016 and projected to reach US$3.2 billion by 2023. Its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 7.40 per cent from 2017 to 2023.
Issell told Food & Drink Business: “We could not understand why no-one in Australia had developed a great tasting beverage in this category. The category is a five-billion-dollar category in
Asia. We have the best ingredients right here, so we thought, let’s make the best product right here.
“We looked to similar products around the world and how people wanted to consume an RTD milk tea product. No one caters to our target market – 12-24-year-old females – in RTD flavoured milk, so creating a product that is lower in fat, sugar and sodium was a no brainer.”
The range comes in 200-millilitre pouches and has 80 per cent less sodium, 35 per cent less sugar and 50 per cent less fat compared to other RTD dairy offerings.
It can also be stored at an ambient temperature.
Issell says extensive testing
with target markets saw them hit upon a formula that works for eastern and western palates with three flavours, Black Tea, Wildberry and Jasmine.
It has been ALS Lab tested to an 18-month shelf life and can also be frozen. It is made with Australian full cream milk powder, no preservatives or artificial colours.
NineCha is Melbourne-based and distributes through third party logistics (3PL) operations.
Issell told F&DB they have “massive growth plans” for 2020 with a portfolio of new products being released throughout the year. ✷
9Cha has launched with three flavours, with more planned for release in 2020.
Milk tea cha cha cha
NineCha (Aust) has launched the first Australian-made milk tea range in the pre-packaged, ready-to-drink market. Kim Berry writes.
Export success for Meredith Dairy
At a time of relentless hardship for the dairy industry, a burgeoning export market is a bright note for this iconic brand. Kim Berry writes.
SPECIALITY cheese and yoghurt producer, Meredith Dairy has secured a contract with Costco in the US to bolster its ongoing export success.
Dairy founders Sandy and Julie Cameron were looking for alternative farming systems to remain viable after the sheep industry collapsed in the 1990s. After extensive research into sheep and goat milk production and cheesemaking techniques, Meredith Dairy was born.
What started as marinated goats cheese in distinctive glass jars at rural Victorian growers’ markets is now shipped by the container load to the US.
Meredith Dairy national export and sales manager Rugby Wilson says: “Our exports are growing faster than the rest of our business at over 20 per cent a year. Last year, exports were 17 per cent of our
turnover and it’s largely thanks to Australia’s free trade agreement with the United States that our competitive position continues to improve.”
The dairy worked with Austrade to access North American markets and Wilson says Austrade opened up industry networks for the company. “[Austrade] helped us to start building relationships. In Washington, we engaged Austrade as a commercial partner and they were incredibly helpful.”
The 2018 Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is also impacting the company’s prospects. “When we started exporting in 2005 we paid a nine per cent entry tariff, but that tariff has fallen by 0.5 per cent every year and now it’s on the verge of disappearing,” Wilson says.
Meredith Dairy’s goats cheese exports are set for a boost.
34 | Food&Drink business | January-February 2020 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au
The CPTPP provides additional quotas for cheese exporters to enter the Canadian market, which frees Australian dairy companies from having to compete against European cheese makers for Canadian quotas. Wilson says Canada is a “great market” for premium foods. “The separate CPTPP
quota means it’s far easier – and far cheaper – for us to get into Canada than before.”
The company still makes and packages its cheeses on the farm outside of Ballarat in Victoria, but now ships around one container of goats cheese to North America everyfortnight. ✷