Fonterra helps out drought-affected Northland farmers

Photo / FIle

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Local government in Northland is publicly thanking Fonterra for its support during the recent drought.

"There's some great work from our tanker team, particularly out of our Kauri site up in Whangarei. They've been delivering 90,000 litres of water over the last week" Kelvin Wickham CEO for AMENA at Fonterra told The Country Early Edition's Rowena Duncum.

Fonterra had incorporated water delivery into its milk collection run and managed to get "three tanker loads of water" to towns such as Kaitaia and Kaikohe said Wickham.

"We can head up with tankers full of water and we can bring milk back."

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The co-op had also been assisting in Rawene and Dargaville by bringing up portable tanks from the South Island to help store water in rural areas.

It was great to be able to help communities, while still focusing on the business at hand when it came to the milk run said Wickham.

"We have to be clear that picking up our milk of our farmers is first and foremost the most important thing we do, but when we can help out in the community ... we have some great resources available."

Many Fonterra farmers were feeling the impact of the dry conditions up North said Wickham, and the co-op was working with its Farm Source team "to do what we can" to help them cope.

Also in today's interview: Wickham talked about Fonterra's recent packaging audit and how it reflected the co-op's commitment to the environment and what farmers needed to know about the half year result which is expected next month.