KEY POINTS:
For Waikato dairy farmer and long-time Fonterra shareholder Terry Hazlehurst, the San Lu melamine scandal came " as a bit of a kick in the guts".
Mr Hazlehurst is part of the Fonterra fraternity who recently received record payouts for milk solids for the last season of $7.90
a kg.
But his thoughts were elsewhere when the Weekend Herald visited his 116ha farm at Tauhei, near Hamilton.
"It's no good," said the 52-year-old. "It's never nice hearing these things, it's not good for Fonterra's publicity and especially for those poor babies."
A Fonterra supplier for nearly 30 years, he would not fault the company he thought was "probably left in the lurch a wee bit".
"They've only got a 43 per cent share in the company ... they needed to have the controlling interest or this sort of thing was going to happen."
He was less forgiving of the directors of San Lu, who he believes should "definitely" have acted sooner.
The Chinese state council reported that San Lu knew in June its formula was tainted with melamine and did not tell Fonterra until August 2.
"They [San Lu] haven't addressed it quickly enough and they didn't take the affected products off the shelves quickly enough ... they've been very shady in the whole thing."
Mr Hazlehurst said the "flow-on effect" to farmers like himself was inevitable after the company said it was writing down its investment in the Chinese milk company by $139 million.
"It's going to cost them [Fonterra] and it will show up as a reduced payout [for us] I would imagine."
Morrinsville dairy farmer Ben Cameron was mortified after learning there was melamine in San Lu's baby formula. The chemical, which can cause crystals to form in the kidneys, is used to make plastics and glue.
But he had some sympathy for San Lu. "The suppliers aren't shareholders and it sounds like they added melamine to the product to up the protein levels to get paid a bit more."
Waikato Federated Farmers Dairy Industry Group chairman John Bluett said the lack of product testing systems in China meant Fonterra was on a "hiding to nothing".
Chinese health officials have revealed that the products of 22 of China's 109 milk companies contained melamine.
"New Zealand's got product testing and a system where you can recall products," said Mr Bluett.
The only likely silver lining was that milk quality to Chinese factories was likely to be "a lot better" and systems would be in place, he said.
"It's not a good practice and it's skulduggery."
