Fonterra D4 project manager Dean Shilvock oversees
construction of the fourth milk drier at the company's
Edendale dairy factory in Southland. Photo by Neal Wallace.
Fonterra's Edendale factory in Southland will become the
world's largest dairy processing site in early September.
A $212 million project to add a fourth milk drier to the
plant is scheduled to be finished on September 1 and will
leave the plant capable of processing 15 million litres of
milk a day.
Project manager Dean Shilvock said the new drier could
produce 27 tonnes of milk powder an hour, or 150,000 tonnes a
season, and would work alongside three smaller driers at the
site, one handling seven tonnes an hour and two 14 tonnes an
hour.
Next season, the new drier was expected to process 620
million litres of milk into regular UHT and instant whole
milk powder.
Mr Shilvock said Edendale's extra capacity was needed to
handle projected milk growth in the South Island by 2012-13,
but in the meantime it would process surplus milk from the
company's Clandeboye plant near Timaru.
It also took milk from Clandeboye last season.
Between 400 and 450 contractors from throughout New Zealand
have been building the new drier, as well as a new boiler, a
120m by 60m new dry store and upgrading the wastewater
system.
Mr Shilvock said the first drier was built at Edendale in
1994, the second in 2002 and the third in 2003.
Casein plants were built in 1996 and 1998.
When the fourth drier was completed, an extra 30 to 40 people
would be employed, taking the site workforce, including
tanker drivers, to about 390.
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