A New Zealand dairy company has been fined 420,000 New Zealand dollars ($261,452) for using imported Indian butter in products labelled as locally produced.
New Zealand’s Commerce Commission said on Monday that Milkio Foods Limited misled customers about the origin of the butter used in its “100 percent pure New Zealand” ghee products.
Milkio, based in Hamilton, admitted to 15 breaches of the Fair Trading Act through false representations as well as unauthorised use of the FernMark logo, which is used to identify New Zealand-made products, the commission said.
Commerce Commission Fair Trading General Manager Vanessa Horne said it was important to hold the company accountable given New Zealand’s “international reputation for high quality dairy products, which underpins the value of our dairy industry and exports”.
“Milkio took advantage of this reputation to promote their own products through the use of descriptions like ‘from the clean green pasture-based dairy farms in New Zealand,’ and ‘produced and manufactured in pristine New Zealand’ despite some of their products using imported butter from India,” Horne said.
Horne said the prosecution would “serve as a warning to others who may be looking to falsely claim the New Zealand brand”.
Milkio did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
New Zealand’s dairy industry is one of the South Pacific country’s biggest revenue earners.
Home to just over five million people, the country ranks as the world’s eighth-largest milk producer, exporting more than 95 percent of its dairy overseas, according to the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand.
Kiwi producers exported 23.7 billion New Zealand dollars ($14.7bn) worth of dairy products in the year to March 2024, accounting for nearly one-quarter of total export values, according to the New Zealand Treasury.
