Blog
On farm with Nestlé: Partnership in action
How Nestlé is supporting Fonterra farmers to reduce on-farm emissions
20 May 2026
2 min
Last month, Fonterra hosted Nestlé’s global team on farm in New Zealand for a firsthand look at how their sustainability initiatives are delivering progress.
The Co-operative announced its partnership with Nestlé in December 2022 to support farmers to reduce emissions. Since it began, the partnership has included multiple projects including Customer Incentives and the Net Zero Pilot Dairy Farm. The visit included a tour of Kathryn Maxwell’s farm in North Waikato, where customer funding has been used for on-farm solutions including the adoption of AI-powered farm planning tools to improve feed efficiency and grow more home-grown feed
Hear why customer partnerships are important for Fonterra in the video below:
Maxwell says it’s important that Nestlé is part of Fonterra’s sustainability journey.
“They understand the steps we can make to reduce emissions, and their support helps reduce some of the risk of trying new technologies,” she says.
While in the Waikato, Nestlé saw a demonstration of EcoPond, an effluent treatment that can reduce methane emissions from effluent ponds by up to 90% and is expected to reduce farm GHG emissions by up to 5%*. A pilot of EcoPond is currently underway in Waikato and Southland to trial the scalability and effectiveness of the service, with funding coming from the Co-op and customer incentives.
Fonterra Director of Sustainability Charlotte Rutherford says:
“Our farmer owners’ openness, innovation and commitment to trying new solutions to help drive efficiencies and emissions reductions on farm is what makes partnerships like this work.”
Nestlé Chief Executive New Zealand Susan Catania says being on farm brings the partnership to life.
“Food, or kai, is at the heart of our business and dairy sits right at the centre of that. Because of that, we have a huge responsibility to source dairy sustainably.”
“We’re committed to working with farmers, with suppliers on the ground, to improve any impact we have on emissions,” says Catania.
The trip also included a visit to the Net Zero Pilot Dairy Farm in Taranaki. The farm is trialling different tools and approaches to reduce emissions to net zero over ten years, while remaining profitable.
Speaking about the collaboration, Catania, acknowledged the vital contribution of Fonterra farmers.
“For us it’s about collaboration, from suppliers, from manufacturers, and from farmers. Thank you for the ingenuity and leaning into this partnership, we’re really grateful.”
At NZMPTM, we understand the critical role of sustainability for customers’ with climate targets. By working alongside customers like Nestlé, Fonterra is turning shared sustainability commitments into practical tools and solutions to help farmers drive meaningful change and continue to drive emissions reductions and efficiencies across our value chain. We look forward to bringing our sustainability progress to every NZMPTM product you purchase.
*See www.ecopond.co.nz for more background on the science behind EcoPond and the studies that have been undertaken to date.
