Work is underway at the site of a new Maori-owned milk powder plant in the central North Island.

Two Maori farming trusts, Wairarapa Moana Inc. and Tuaropaki Kaitiaki Ltd., are behind the dairy processing and export venture.

The plant is being built on farm land near Taupo, in time to start processing milk in late July or early August next year.

The chair of the dairy company Miraka Ltd., Kingi Smiler, says it will have the capacity to process about 1.1 million litres of milk a day at its peak.