Fonterra is looking to build a new high-efficiency milk powder plant at its Pahiatua site to process an additional 2.5 million litres each day.
Fonterra director NZ operations Brent Taylor said the proposal for a third drier would help 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,” he 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 farmers.”
“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.”
Taylor said the co-op has looked into a number of possible locations in the North Island to expand processing capacity and Pahiatua’s proximity to good infrastructure such as a nearby port and rail lines has made it a good option.
“We’ve done some initial plans and believe we would be able to build a drier which uses the latest technology so wastewater could be treated and irrigated to neighbouring land. It would also be the first in the country to reuse its own condensate,” he said.
“At this stage it is very early days and our first priority is to talk with the local community before any formal decision is made.”
If plans were to proceed, the new drier could produce up to 85,000 metric tonnes of milk powder and use the latest energy efficient processing.
