The world’s largest dairy exporter, Fonterra Cooperative Group, has blamed “human error” as the reason the New Zealand-based exporter missed its deadline to apply for a licence to export cheese in the US.
“Due to human error, a deadline was missed which meant that Fonterra (USA) failed to apply in time for licences to import New Zealand cheese into the USA in 2015,” Kelvin Wickham, Fonterra director global ingredients, said.
Following the blunder that has now cost the company a multi-million dollar licence, Fonterra said it has reached commercial agreements with other New Zealand cheese exporters to sell its product in the US.
“Fonterra has reached commercial arrangements with other New Zealand cheese licence holders to ensure that we can meet our planned 2015 New Zealand cheese orders in the USA.
“The financial impact is limited and our 2015 sales will not be impacted.”
