Fonterra is defending its decision to allow its $360 million milk powder dryer at its Lichfield plant to go unused for half of the season for the second year in a row. However, for the second season running the plant has not run for the full milking season, having wrapped up its operations in the 2018-19 season in December. The plant's cheese and whey protein manufacturing facilities ran at almost full capacity across the 2018-2019 milk season. He denied claims it was built on forecasted milk growth for South Waikato and only for that growth to dry up due to tighter regulations and more competition. "It wasn't based on forecast milk growth in that region - it was on the existing milk we had.

Source: Stuff July 14, 2019 22:18 UTC