The storm that destroyed one farm dairy in Whataroa also shredded haysheds, stripped roofs, topped trees and whipped out power connections. It created havoc and fear and left many dairy farmers up and down the length of the coast with months of work ahead of them.
Westland Milk Products chief executive Rod Quin said recovery from the disaster would be no quick fix and the company, along with Federated Farmers and other community groups, was working to help.
“They’re tired, stressed and have a mountain of work in front of them – and that’s when accidents can happen,” Quin said.
Farmers were being urged to make use of help available to them and Rural Support contacts were being made in communities up and down the coast.
He saluted farmer and community efforts in looking out for each other. While personal safety always had to be paramount, farmers had worked hard to look after their animals during and after the storm and generators were moved from farm to farm to get cows milked.
He expected electricians would be busy not only with repairs but also in wiring up farm dairies for generators as those who were unprepared now realised what was involved in having the standby power source.
The co-operative’s Hokitika plant withstood the battering and while the lights flickered through the event, power was not lost.
As a precaution during the storm, the co-op enacted its emergency operating procedures switching from running milk through its dryers to water only which would have enabled a quicker return to processing if power had been lost and then returned.
Reportedly about half of the region’s farmers had been hit with significant damage and for several the storm had been a tipping point that would mean a premature end to this season’s milking.
Quin said milk supply had dropped by about 500,000 litres over three days following the storm period but it had crept up since then. He didn’t expect it would return to pre-storm flows with some farmers deciding to remain on once-a-day milking or dry off.
Power outages and delays in pick-up due to road access problems meant milk had been disposed of onfarm through effluent systems in a few cases.
Farms at either end of the coast had been particularly hard hit with tankers unable to get to about six Karamea farms in the north for two days and severe damage to some farms in Whataroa in the south.
Commitment to China
Westland Milk Products’ establishment of a subsidiary Chinese company and permanent office in Shanghai is a strong message of the co-op’s commitment to China.
Chief executive Rod Quin said the wholly-owned subsidiary would be registered in China and would give another level of comfort to Chinese officials that the co-op is serious about its business there.
“They want to know you’re there for the long haul,” he said.
With last year’s botulinum scare and the exponential rise in number of companies trying to do business, particularly in the infant formula segment of dairy product sales in China, regulations have tightened with stiff requirements imposed.
The office is being established and the registration process is in train. A senior New Zealand Westland Milk Products executive would head up the office which would be staffed mainly by Chinese nationals.
China accounts for 20% of Westland’s total sales but Quin expected that proportion to rise to about 30-40% as part of the co-op’s strategy to increase its focus on higher value nutritional products.
Construction of its new $102 million dryer, due to begin within weeks, is part of that strategy.
The expansion at Hokitika includes new batching equipment, high specification mixing equipment, additional warehousing, another laboratory and a 25kg packing line.
It will enable the co-op to produce an additional 23,000 tonnes of nutritional product each season and adds to the upgrade of an existing dryer carried out last season that’s enabled the co-op to venture down the nutritionals path.
