> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Organic Butter in NZ: Tracing Organic Times from Brand to Butter - URL: https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/organic-butter-in-nz-tracing-organic-times-from-brand-to-butter/ - Published: 2026-02-01T22:14:23.000Z - Updated: 2026-02-26T09:00:04.000Z - Description: Organic butter in New Zealand comes from cows on certified organic farms, where pasture-based feeding and strict standards shape milk quality. From farm to churn, organic certification ensures grazing practices, animal welfare and processing methods meet organic rules. - Author: Luke Nicholas - Tags: butter, #Migrated-1771833341880, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-02-23 07:55 As I’ve been working through organic staples, butter felt like a good one to understand properly. It’s simple, widely used, and surprisingly opaque once you start asking basic questions about where it comes from. One brand I see consistently in New Zealand is **Organic Times** butter. I buy it regularly, but I wanted to understand who actually makes it and where the milk comes from. Here’s what I’ve learned so far. --- ## Brand vs Production: Clearing Up the Confusion Organic Times is an **Australian brand**. Their Australian address is printed clearly on the wrapper, which can initially make it feel like the butter might be imported. However, the same wrapper also clearly states: > **Produced in New Zealand** That turns out to be accurate. The butter sold in NZ under the Organic Times brand is **made in New Zealand**, not imported. The brand is Australian, but the production is local. For me, that distinction matters more than brand nationality. --- ## Who Actually Makes the Butter? Digging deeper led me to **Canary Foods**, a New Zealand dairy manufacturer. Their site and product history line up with the type of butter being produced for Organic Times under contract. Canary Foods was subsequently **acquired by Westland Milk Products**, a long-established New Zealand dairy processor. So the most accurate current picture looks like this: - Organic Times = consumer brand (Australian-owned) - Butter = produced in New Zealand - Manufacturing = via Canary Foods operations - Parent processor = Westland Milk Products --- ## Who Owns Westland? Westland Milk Products itself was fully acquired in **2019** by **Yili Group**, a large global dairy company headquartered in China. That means the ownership chain now looks like: **Organic Times (brand)** → **Produced in New Zealand** → **Canary Foods / Westland Milk Products (manufacturer)** → **Yili Group (parent company)** This doesn’t change where the butter is made or where the milk comes from, but it does matter for people who care about ownership structures and scale. --- ## What This Means in Practical Terms For someone standing in a shop deciding whether to buy this butter, here’s the grounded takeaway: - It is **certified organic** - It is **produced in New Zealand** - It uses **NZ-sourced milk** - It is **not a small single-farm product** - It *is* a contract-manufactured butter under a large dairy processor I’m comfortable with that trade-off. I’d always prefer more transparency around specific farms, but in the context of organic dairy at scale, this sits in a reasonable middle ground. --- ## Availability and Real-World Pricing One reason Organic Times works for me is that it’s **easy to find** and **relatively affordable** for organic butter. Places I regularly see it stocked: - **Common Sense Organics (Mt Eden)** – usually my go-to, currently around **$10.99** - **Farro** – often stocked, but sometimes **$2 more** for the same butter - **Naturally Organic (Albany)** – good range, but a longer drive, so more occasional - **Woolworths Online** – shows as stocked, though availability varies by location Prices fluctuate enough that it’s worth shopping around if you use butter regularly. --- ## My Current View Organic Times butter isn’t pretending to be something it isn’t. It’s: - organic - made in New Zealand - widely available - reasonably priced (if you shop carefully) It’s not a boutique, fully transparent, farm-named butter. But as an **everyday organic butter**, it does the job well while remaining accessible. I’m happy using it while continuing to learn more about organic dairy, and I’ll update this note if I find clearer information about milk sourcing or alternative NZ organic butter producers. ## Sources and Further Reading - Canary Foods – Our Story: [https://canaryfoods.co.nz/our-story/](https://canaryfoods.co.nz/our-story/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) - Organic Times (AU) – Grass-Fed Butter article: [https://www.organictimes.com.au/blog/grass-fed-butter-is-best-spread-the-word/](https://www.organictimes.com.au/blog/grass-fed-butter-is-best-spread-the-word/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8d/c7/8dc73d5d-0b1a-482d-8854-dc0e254fce26/content/images/2026/02/img_0456-jpeg.jpg) **Ownership note:** Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., Ltd. is publicly listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Global asset managers BlackRock and The Vanguard Group hold small passive stakes (each well under 1%). The company’s largest shareholders are primarily Chinese state-linked entities and domestic institutional investors, with no single foreign asset manager holding a controlling interest.