Big dryer heads dairy development

The world's largest milk-powder dryer, costing $212 million, was opened  at Edendale in Southland as part of Fonterra's strengthening of infrastructure, with more South Island developments to follow. Fonterra has a rolling plan to upgrade its plants and warehouses, and the milk-powder dryer, ED4, capable of producing 27 tonnes of milk powder an hour, will increase Fonterra's national production by more than 10 per cent to 1.1 million tonnes a year. The Edendale dryer coincides with dairying growth in the South Island of between 6 per cent and 7 per cent over the past year. Fonterra trade and operations managing director Gary Romano said the South Island represented one-third of Fonterra's milk manufacturing reports Stuff. New Zealand manufacturing general manager Brent Taylor said Edendale would eventually have to be upscaled again, with the improvements meeting demands for milk powder for the next two to three years. He said Edendale had the largest processing capacity for a plant and in the next year would be the co-operative's top milk-powder producer. He said a slowdown in conversions and tighter control of bank lending during the recession would pass and dairying could be expected to grow again in the south, with improvements in farming. The co-operative has been investing in infrastructure, spending $130m on warehouse upgrades, including a refit in Mosgiel and new dry and cool stores at its Crawford St complex in Hamilton. In the past five seasons, Southland's milk production has grown by 40 per cent.