Fonterra rises to Covid-19 challenge in Asia Pacific markets

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Fonterra has been helping Malaysian people through the Covid-19 outbreak with some inventive social media campaigns, says CEO for Asia Pacific Judith Swales.

When Covid-19 restrictions hit the Asia Pacific market there were long supermarket queues due to unprecedented panic buying and many people were eating at home.

Fonterra's consumer brands responded to this challenge and "rose really well to fill that gap", Swales told The Country Early Edition's Rowena Duncum.

"Our brands are actually emphasising the proven immunity benefits of certain products and they're pivoting the social media campaign to engage Malaysians whilst they're at home using things like our Anlene brand"

Listen below:

Part of the campaign was #moveathome which showed people exercises they could do when confined in their houses. As well as this, there were daily home cooking recipes with Anchor, said Swales.

"Actually taking people through how to incorporate dairy, how to eat well whilst you're at home. It's been a challenge but the teams are really responding well".

The Asia Pacific lockdown had impacted the food sector with many cafes, restaurants and hotels closed down, but some businesses were still "doing OK" said Swales.

"The ones that are set up for delivery and for contactless pick ups, I think that they pivoted really quickly to that".

However Fonterra thought there would still be "significant change" in how food service businesses operate in the future, said Swales.

"Fewer menu items being offered, less labour in stores, restaurants starting to outsource more to centralised preparation. More investment into digital technology to support convenience and more contactless engagement and more home deliveries".

"Our food service teams are working through what this new norm might be, they're looking at different scenarios and how do we respond and capitalise on the opportunities that invariably will come along with the risks".

Also in today's interview: Swales discussed the latest GDT result and Ash-Leigh Campbell, the 2020 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year.