Fonterra announces record sales during month of food safety revelations

New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, which has been subject to two international food safety alerts revealed this month, reported Friday that it had achieved record sales and revenues on its two GlobalDairyTrade (GDT) commodity auctions in August.

The news came the same day Fonterra announced it was suspending all operations in Sri Lanka after protests outside its plants there amid a long-running legal battle with the authorities over the safety of its products.

Fonterra achieved its highest-ever monthly revenue from GDT in August, selling 109,664 metric tons of products worth 685 million NZ dollars (536.49 million U.S. dollars).

"The past two GDT events show continued confidence in our products and strong demand from many of our key markets," Chief Executive Theo Spierings said in a statement.

"Our August GDT sales volume was up 27 percent on the same time last year, and revenue more than doubled, up 107 percent."

Early this month, Fonterra revealed it was recalling whey protein concentrate that had been contaminated in May last year with a bacterium that can cause botulism.

New Zealand's Ministry for Primary Industries and the government are conducting investigations into the cause of the contamination and how the company handled it.

This week it was revealed in New Zealand that Chinese authorities had stopped Fonterra milk powder at the border in July after it was found to have excessive nitrate levels.

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