Australia’s oldest dairy targeting Asian lunchboxes with new cheese lollipop

PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA, February 1, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Australia’s oldest dairy, Brownes, has struck a deal with China’s largest cheese producer to jointly manufacture “cheese lollipops” for the Asian market, using cheese produced in Western Australia.

The ‘Cheesies' are lollipops which have been created for kids’ lunchboxes, using Australian-produced cheddar from Brownes Dairy.

China’s number one cheese processor, Milkground has the capacity to produce almost 60 million Cheesies a year from a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Shanghai.

“Cheesies have Australian animal characters on the packaging, including a wombat, kangaroo, koala and a cockatoo. Consumers across our target markets across Asia will immediately recognise the characters as a stamp of quality of Australian dairy,” said Brownes Dairy CEO Natalie Sarich-Dayton.

The snacks are aimed at challenging the global lunchbox market, which has been dominated by Swiss-owned Babybel - which sells 2 billion cheese wheels a year in more than 50 countries.

“Australia and New Zealand are the two largest cheese producers in the Asia Pacific region, and it makes complete sense for us to be supplying cheese to the Asian market, rather than cheese being sourced from the United States or Europe,” said Ms Sarich-Dayton.

There are at least 560 million children in the compulsory school age group across the Asia Pacific region, according to data from Statista.

“Parents are always looking for healthy, convenient snacks for school lunches and if the products are also appealing for children, then it becomes a bit of a no-brainer for them,” said Ms Sarich-Dayton.

The Cheesies will initially go on sale in China, Macau, Hong Kong and Singapore. This will be followed by Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea and Europe.

Ms Sarich-Dayton highlighted the value of closer collaboration with Chinese manufacturers, noting Australia’s expertise in producing high-quality cheese and the valuable lessons learned from Chinese partners about manufacturing at an unprecedented scale.

“There is a lot of value to be unlocked through closer collaboration with Chinese manufacturers. Australia is exceptional at producing extremely high quality cheese, and we are already learning a lot from our partners in China about manufacturing at a scale we’ve just never seen before,” said Sarich-Dayton.

Brownes Dairy is predicting that the new line of Cheesies will require more milk to be produced by Australian farmers to keep up with exploding demand.

Anticipating a surge in demand, Brownes Dairy predicts that Cheesies will necessitate increased milk production from Australian farmers. This expected boost in production will be welcomed by the Australian dairy industry.

“It’s important to recognise that this is a new dairy product, in a new market segment, with an enormous target market. We are incredibly excited about the potential for Cheesies across the Asia-Pacific region,” said Sarich-Dayton.

The Cheesies will initially be made available in three flavours: cheese, strawberry and vanilla.

They will be available at the following retailers in Singapore: Giant, Fair Price, NTUC, Prime and Redmart.

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About Brownes Dairy

Brownes Dairy is Australia’s oldest dairy company, established in 1886. Brownes Dairy operates out of its main site in Balcatta with a second site in Brunswick collecting about 150 million litres of milk each year from more than 50 dairy farms located in WA’s South West. Brownes Dairy has a diverse portfolio of dairy including milk, cream, yoghurt, flavoured milk, juice and desserts. Brownes Dairy was named as one of the country’s most innovative companies as part of the Australian Financial Review’s 2019 BOSS annual awards, and was the only dairy company to make the list.


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Heidi Cuthbert
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Heidi Cuthbert
Multiplier Media
+61 411 272 366
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