Saturday, March 30, 2024

Fonterra plans to expand operations in the lower North Island

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Dairy processing giant Fonterra has announced it will be applying for consents to build a new high-efficiency milk powder plant at its Pahiatua site.
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The plant will process an additional 2.5 million litres per day, helping ease peak processing pressure in the lower North Island.

“Our two existing driers at Pahiatua are already running at capacity, processing 1.4 million litres a day, and for the past 12 years we have had to send at least 1.6 million litres a day by rail to our site at Whareroa to process,” Fonterra Director NZ Operations Brent Taylor said.

While most of the growth in dairy is coming from the South Island we are still seeing some growth in the North Island and we want to be able to process extra milk in a way that enables the most value to our famers.”

He says that while the plant would increase the company’s efficiency it would also be highly beneficial for the local community.

“A new drier, similar in size to our recently opened plant at Darfield in Canterbury, would help drive greater efficiencies across our manufacturing footprint as well as creating around another 45 jobs on top of the work the construction of the plant would provide for local businesses.”

The company has undertaken initial plans and believes that by using the latest technology they can build a drier that would allow them to treat and irrigate wastewater to neighbouring land and become the first in the country to reuse its own condensate.

If plans were to proceed, the new drier could produce up to 85,000 tonnes of milk powder and use the latest energy efficient processing.

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