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Fonterra will invest $550 million in a leading Chinese infant formula company, Beingmate, in a deal that promises to provide the NZ company with new inroads into the lucrative dairy market.

The partnership will see the NZ dairy company exchange a 51 per cent majority share of its milk powder factory at Gippsland in Victoria for a 20 per cent share of the Chinese company.

Fonterra Australia MD, Judith Swales, is predicting that the value of the infant formula market in China will nearly double in the next three years to $33 billion by 2017.

She also described the deal as a “game changer for the dairy industry in Australia” in an ABC Rural report.

The deal is contingent on approval from the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board.

Packaging News

The ACCC has instituted court proceedings against Clorox Australia, owner of GLAD-branded kitchen and garbage bags, over alleged false claims that bags were partly made of recycled 'ocean plastic'.

In news that is disappointing but not surprising given the recent reports on the unfolding Qenos saga, the new owner of Qenos has placed the company into voluntary administration. The closure of the Qenos Botany facility has also been confirmed.

An agreement struck between Cleanaway and Viva Energy will see the two companies undertake a prefeasibility assessment of a circular solution for soft plastics and other hard-to-recycle plastics.