Why New Zealand's Fonterra is rethinking global ambitions

Worldwide expansion jarred with its roots as a local cooperative

Fonterra's dairy products account for more than 20% of the country's exports. © Getty Images

FUMI MATSUMOTO, Nikkei staff writer

September 28, 2019 05:00 JST

SYDNEY -- It was only less than two years ago that Fonterra, New Zealand's biggest company, saw itself as a diary giant bestriding the world.

Now a series of losses and mishaps is prompting the world's top dairy exporter to reconsider and go back to its roots. After posting its biggest-ever net loss, the company that prides itself on being New Zealand's biggest exporter, is considering a retreat from its costly Chinese farms and dairy product operations in Brazil.