“Traffic has now reduced to more normal levels and aligned to more seasonal patterns.
“Each of our regions is slightly different in terms of buying behaviour and collection versus delivery but all have adopted and respected this way of operating in a short period of time.
“Orders are placed over the phone or online and can be dropped off at a zero-contact collection point on-farm or picked up from outside the store.
“Our phone-based service centre and online sales channel have come into their own,” Allen said.
The biggest challenge for farmers initially was changing on-farm practices for covid-19 safety reasons and registration with the Ministry for Primary Industries.
Fonterra has established a dedicated Farm Source website for the latest information and advice for managing in this situation.
It has also modelled scenarios around the June 1 moving time for each covid-19 alert level, though they have not been released.
Allen said the demand for palm kernel has been on par with previous years and average fat evaluation indexes have risen in Northland and Waikato since Christmas.
Those increases were in line with what happened in the upper South Island drought last year.
“Farmers are continuing to manage their FEI levels well by optimising supplementary feeds and drying off lower-producing cows.”
It is not easy to forecast palm kernel demand but the main supply lines remain open and there is enough inventory to cover forward commitments, he said.
At the Kauri processing plant, near Whangarei, on-site water sources have dried up and Fonterra is tankering in water from a private dam nearby.
Earlier in the drought it was facilitating water deliveries to Kaikohe and Kaitaia through Kauri, which is also connected to the Whangarei town water storage lake, but that has now ceased.
Fonterra remains adamant it hasn’t experienced shortages of chilled containers or storage and its shipments are being prioritised though ports in some markets have slowed.
“As part of our business continuity plan we identified extra storage space but as yet we have not needed it,” global supply chain director Gordon Carlyle said.
“At this time of year we generally always have storage over and above our fixed footprint.”
Carlyle said milk collection, production, scheduling, logistics and delivery activities to all markets are largely operating as normal.
“One of our advantages is our scale, both in manufacturing, product mix and international marketplaces.
“We have the ability to flex and change to adapt to hot-spots around the world.
“This is a key benefit of having a global customer base and multiple selling platforms – consumer, food service, supply contracts, Global Dairy Trade and spot sales.”
