Covid 19 coronavirus: How Fonterra dealt with alert level changes

Photo / File

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The surprise announcement of Covid-19 alert level changes on Sunday evening may have presented "another little challenge" for Fonterra, but luckily the co-op is a "well-oiled" machine, Chief Operating Officer Fraser Whineray says.

"It's been fantastic to see a quick response from all of our teams across the country," Whineray told The Country Sport Breakfast's Brian Kelly.

Fonterra already had precautions in place to deal with any changes and the different parts of the co-op were ready to go, Whineray said.

"The tankers, the manufacturing, distribution, labs, environmental teams have all had to ramp up their response again, and they put in place extra safety measures – depending on what region in New Zealand that they're in."

Fonterra had been managing Covid-19 for some time now and was in a privileged position to be able to operate largely without disruption.

"We're still running at a very healthy 40,000 litres a minute so we've got plenty to do to put the tea macchiatos into China and the specialty proteins into America," Whineray said.

Fonterra Chief Operating Officer Fraser Whineray. Photo / Supplied

Back home, it was important to arrange essential vehicles crossing the Auckland border to deal with any spikes in demand from "enthusiastic buyers at the supermarket," Whineray said.

Fonterra farmers were also taken care of, with regional Auckland Farm Source stores operating as click and collect, and Farm Source stores across the rest of the country running as usual.

Meanwhile, Fonterra's partnership with Kotahi, the co-op's ocean freight joint venture company, had been vital.

Listen below:

Kotahi was formed in 2011 as a joint venture between Fonterra and Silver Fern Farms, just after the Global Financial Crisis "because global shipping got pretty precarious at that point," Whineray said.

"It's really important we get our stuff to market. If we don't get it on the ship to the customers, we don't get paid – and when you're running at about 400 million a week – that's pretty important."

Also in today's interview: Whineray talked about how Covid-19 had affected Fonterra's global supply chain.