Listen: Why China's 'muddy bun' fixation is good for NZ

Photo / Mark Mitchell

Fonterra celebrated10 years of the Global Dairy Trade Auction this week. And even though this week's auction dipped, Scott Walls is proud of the dairy co-op's achievement.

The Fonterra Regional Head for the Taranaki region caught up with The Country Early Edition's Rowena Duncum for a chat about the GDTA, and more importantly ... muddy buns.

Muddy, or dirty, buns are a Chinese trend that is taking off, says Walls, who describes the product as "a chocolate croissant ... coated in rich chocolate ganache, and sprinkled with cocoa powder."

It's always easy to tell who has been into the Muddy buns, says Walls, as they end up with an incriminating coating of chocolate and cocoa powder all over their face.

There is big business behind the buns, as they use Fonterra products, and they are so popular that people in China are queuing for hours to get their hands on them.

"The key for us is that they use a lot of butter and that's really good for us. Butter prices are at a really historic high at the moment and New Zealand butter particularly, people want those real natural products."

In fact Muddy buns are so popular that Fonterra's Edgecumbe plant is commissioning a new butter sheet line just to keep up with demand.

Also in today's interview: Scott Walls talks about Fonterra's live water Q&A taking place next Wednesday. If you'd like to submit a question you can do so here.

Listen below: