Southland-based nutritional products manufacturer Blue River Dairy announced today it has ceased production of its Sheeprise and Gogo Goat products sold to New Zealand customers. The company is now exclusively focusing on its core market in China.

General manager Robert Boekhout said it was a very tough decision to make and one that the company has not taken lightly.

“We’ve really valued all the support and loyalty from our New Zealand customers over the past few years – which has made making this decision all the more difficult,” he said.

Mr Boekhout said the New Zealand infant formula and toddler milk market was a crowded one, dominated by some large, well-established competitors.

“Whilst we believe we offered a unique product and we did have some very loyal customers, there were not enough sales to justify the costs of manufacturing for the local market,” Mr Boekhout said.

During its 20 years in business, Blue River has evolved from producing boutique sheep milk cheese to focusing on the production of premium nutritional products. It was the first in the world to develop sheep milk nutrition products using exclusively sheep milk protein and it is now recognised as the biggest sheep milk brand in China.

The company produces a total of nine infant formula recipes for China, all of which have recently been registered by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). This registration cements the place of the products in the Chinese infant formula market.

As part of the process of exiting the New Zealand market, Blue River Dairy is no longer taking orders from its online store. A number of pharmacies may still carry a limited supply, but once these are sold, they won’t be restocked.