Fonterra’s research and development centre and its global NZMP ingredients business have developed a new white butter product.

The move is part of the companys aim to meet the growing demand for white butter in the Middle East.

This market is already is reported to be familiar with Fonterra’s butter product for its golden appearance, but certain manufacturers have been demanding white butter as a processing ingredient.

"It is performing to our expectations as a high-quality ingredient for food businesses across the Middle East region.”

Fonterra looks to capitalise on the opportunity by developing white butter ingredient through a new manufacturing process, which allowed them to reduce the golden appearance of the butter without affecting the product quality.

Fonterra’s dairy foods NZMP director Casey Thomas said: “While our yellow butter already sees great success in this market, we saw an opportunity to tap into this new area for customers to use in a variety of applications such as spreadable jar cheese, recombined cream cheese, and could soon be used in ice cream.”

The Fonterra research and development centre and NZMP teams earlier partnered with customers to provide them with steady supplies of ingredients, as well as create business solutions with them.

NZMP Middle East and Africa general manager Santiago Aon said: “This innovative approach is already seeing strong results. Our customers have had positive feedback about the white butter; it is performing to our expectations as a high-quality ingredient for food businesses across the Middle East region.”

The product will currently be available in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Bahrain, Turkey and Pakistan, and the company intends to launch in Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and South America in the future.