Protesters blocked trucks from entering a Dunedin fertiliser depot this morning, saying the chief executive had ‘‘blood on their hands’’.
About 15 people from Extinction Rebellion Otepoti and Environmental Justice Otepoti gathered at the entry of Ballance Agri-Nutrients about 9am as a part of a nationwide protest to stop Ballance Agri-Nutrients and Ravensdown from purchasing phosphate from disputed territory Western Sahara.
Earlier this year a ship carrying a controversial fertiliser product received a frosty reception from protesters in Lyttelton who marched from the port to the main street to protest the arrival of more "blood phosphate". And Ravensdown's head office in Christchurch was also targeted by protesters in March over its use of synthetic fertilisers.
Group spokesman Jack Brazil said they were at the Dunedin fertiliser depot to stop business as usual, because their business as usual was funding war.
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‘‘We are preventing the stolen blood phosphate from being picked up and being distributed along the whenua as an act of solidarity,’’ he said.
After a nearly three-decade-old ceasefire, Moroccan troops have launched an operation in the disputed area.
Morocco said on Friday it was starting an operation to clear the road in the Guerguerat area, located in a United Nations-monitored buffer zone where any armed activity breaches the 1991 truce.
‘‘We’ve had friends in Western Sahara send us pictures, documenting the brutality and violence they are enduring.’’
The exploitation of Western Sahara’s lands had kept more than 170,000 Saharawi people in refugee camps in south-west Algeria for the last 45 years, Mr Brazil said.
In 2018, the High Court of South Africa seized a shipment of blood phosphate heading to New Zealand.
Ravensdown and Ballance were two of the last independent companies in the world still purchasing phosphate from Western Sahara, he said.
‘‘They are funding war now... there are people’s lives on the line.’’
Extinction Rebellion Otepoti and Environmental Justice Otepoti wanted the companies to find another source.
‘‘Their financing of this... that is what is keeping the commercial interest in the phosphate by Morocco.’’
Mr Brazil said that meant Ballance Agri-Nutrients chief executive Mark Wynne and Ravensdown CEO Greg Campbell had "blood on their hands".
The Otago Daily Times has approached Ballance for comment.
A police spokeswoman said officers were called to the protest at 9am and advised protesters they could not block the entrance to Ballance.
‘‘There have been no issues," she said.
