So big, in fact, that 15% of all Fonterra Brands New Zealand's annual cream sales occur during the festive season.
The Anchor cream plant has been working "faster than Santa's elves" to ensure demand was met, Fonterra Brands New Zealand general manager retail sales and export Baden Ngan Kee said yesterday.
During the last three weeks, enough cream had been sold to cover more than 100,000 pavlovas and fill more than six million brandy snaps and the company expected to sell almost four times that amount by Christmas Day.
Fonterra is on track for record exports of close to 240,000 tonnes of dairy product in December.
While the dairy giant would not have the final figures until early next year, the way the season had been tracking meant containers had been filling up fast, managing director trade and operations Gary Romano said.
"The good weather conditions have meant the milk is still really flowing. We broke production records in October. We collected a record 81.5 million litres on our biggest day..." It was the first time the co-op had collected more than 80 million litres in one day.
"We're still collecting, processing and shipping around 10% more milk than last year. In March, we exported a record 229,000 tonnes of product for the month. If things carry on the way they are in December, we're on track to export close to 240,000 tonnes."
While many New Zealanders would be taking it easy over the next few weeks, Fonterra would not be stopping.
On Christmas Day, its 10,500 farmer suppliers will be putting the milking cups on, 850 drivers will be on the road, 1800 manufacturing staff will be on site and 200 supply chain staff will be packing export containers.
While the co-operative was past the peak of the season, Fonterra cows were still producing about 65 million litres of milk daily.
