25 Feb 2011

Quake forces Fonterra to reorganise dairy exports

7:23 am on 25 February 2011

Fonterra is having to reorganise its dairy exports out of the South Island because of the temporary closure of the Port of Lyttelton following Tuesday's powerful earthquake.

The dairy co-operative had 570 containers at Lyttelton awaiting shipment when the quake struck, and is assessing damage to some of those containers.

Fonterra says limited port operations at Lyttelton are expected to resume in the next few days and in the meantime it is holding containers at the Temuka and Timaru railhead.

The containers will be diverted to the Port of Timaru or Port Chalmers at Dunedin once shipping companies finalise their arrangements.

Fonterra has had no disruption to its milk supply in Canterbury but has had to divert milk from the damaged Plains processing plant in Christchurch to its Clandeboye operation in Timaru.