In celebrating this year’s World Milk Day, Nestlé in the East and Southern Africa Region (ESAR) highlighted NESTLÉ NESPRAY Fortigrow’s role in the preservation of the environment through utilizing sustainable farming and production methods.

In line with this years theme which focuses on Sustainability NESTLÉ NESPRAY celebrates two key initiatives. The first is the “zereau water” factory in Mosselbay and the second is the first net zero carbon emissions project; an ambition to create Nestlé first carbon neutral farm, Skimmelkrans,  in George, South Africa. Milk produced from the farm is exclusively supplied to the Nestlé ‘zereau water’ factory in Mossel Bay and is used in the production of NESTLÉ NESPRAY Fortigrow.

The zereau water factory processes fresh cow’s milk, which normally contains 80% water.  The milk gets spray dryed by removing the water leaving 100% pure full cream milk powder. The water captured during the evaporation process then gets treated and repurposed within the facility, thereby saving 168-million litres of water a year.“World Milk Day is a very important day for us at NESTLÉ NESPRAY.  The nutrition and development of school aged children is a key focus area. NESTLÉ NESPRAY FortiGrow is a 100% full cream milk powder that is specifically designed to address key nutritional requirements of children between 5 – 14 years, with nutrients that support learning, cognitive development, immunity and physical growth,” said Yovini Moodley, Business Executive Officer, Dairy, Nestlé South Africa.

“Not only are we committed to ensuring that we provide caregivers with nutritious powdered milk for their children, but we also dedicate our resources to finding sustainable solutions for the production of our milk,” added Moodley.

Commenting on what it takes for a farm to achieve net-zero emissions status, Hoven Meyer, Agricultural Services Group Manager at Nestlé ESAR stated that net-zero is achieved when emissions created by the farm are displaced by removing the same amount emissions from the atmosphere.

“While there are many ways to create more sustainable operations for dairy farms, Skimmelkrans sets itself apart through the soil work, water conservation, feed management and manure processing, where some of the biggest reductions of greenhouse gases occur. NESTLÉ ESAR has committed that the farm will be carbon zero by 2023. Both the “zereau water” factory and Simmelkraans speak to Nestlé “RE” Sustainability initiative,” highlighted Meyer.

World Milk Day is a day which was was initiated twenty years ago by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations to celebrate the dairy sector and recognize the importance of milk as a global food. To follow the conversation visit @nestlenespray on Facebook.