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THE LAST bolts are being tightened at Fonterra's new $120 million UHT milk processing site at Waitoa.
After more than 12 months of construction, the site is on-track to produce its first Anchor UHT product off the line in March. UHT operations manager, Donald Lumsden, says the cooperative couldn't be more excited.
"This is a very exciting time for Fonterra,"Lumsden says. "The global demand for dairy is growing and we're now well-positioned to meet this growth with our new state-of-the-art UHT milk processing site at Waitoa. The site will enable us to optimise the milk our farmers produce by turning it into high-value consumer products that will meet market demand in Asia."
The site includes five new UHT processing lines that will produce a range of products including Anchor UHT white milk and UHT cream. It will process more than 100 million litres of milk per year by August, when all five lines will be operating.
"The site's technology means we can produce up to 24,000 milk packs an hour per line, they will be flying off the line," says Lumsden.
To test the site's milk processing and packaging capabilities, water commissioning has begun. This means operating the site on water to ensure all elements of production are in working-order before the first product is produced.
"Running water through the processing lines ensures we can vigorously test how the milk and packaging will be processed. It lets us know that the site is ready to begin processing milk," says Lumsden.
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