Elecster’s milk packs boost public health in China
27/04/2004
The Chinese want to increase milk consumption, but delivering the readily perishable food to consumers is not easy. The popularity of Finland’s Elecster milk packaging systems is growing rapidly in the country.
The Chinese want to increase milk consumption, but delivering the readily perishable food from producers to consumers is far from easy. The popularity of Finland’s Elecster milk packaging systems is growing rapidly in the country, because it does not require an unbroken cold chain. Elecster machines fill the packs with ultra-heat treated (UHT) milk which depending on the packaging material has a shelf life of from 1 to 3 months.
Up to now Elecster has delivered 200 production lines to China. They are capable of producing about 10 million bags of milk a day. The Finnish company has also built a comprehensive servicing and spare parts network in the country.
Elecster’s next step in the Chinese market is to start the manufacture of the plastic film that is used in making the packages. The production plant is to be built in Tianjin near Beijing and will be completed during the spring.
The total value of Elecster’s investment is five million euros. The production plant will have 20 to 30 employees. Finnfund is participating in the project with an investment loan.
“Thanks to state funding and support, milk consumption has risen to about eight litres per head of population annually. Each one litre increase in the average consumption means an additional requirement of three million litres of daily capacity, which translates into the setting up of about 100 new production lines,” says Jarmo Halonen, Elecster’s Managing Director.
For further information please contact Mr. Matti Kerppola tel. +358 9 3484 3334, matti.kerppola@finnfund.fi
