Fonterra helping Canterbury farmers clean up after floods

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It has been a tough couple of weeks for Fonterra's Canterbury farmers and employees after the recent flooding in the region.

However, Fonterra's chief financial officer Marc Rivers was pleased to report that everyone was safe, and nobody had been seriously injured.

"The first concern was the safety of our people and the community. That's always the number one priority," he told The Country Sport Breakfast's Brian Kelly.

The cop-op had to close its Clandeboye site for a couple of days, for safety reasons.

"That, along with road closures, meant that some of our milk collections had to divert to our Takaka and Studholme sites," Rivers said.

Now that the flood waters were receding and everything was starting to dry up, Fonterra's teams were looking at the damage and looking at the best way to support farmers.

Fonterra had its local Farm Source and transport people out and about assessing conditions, and earlier this week the co-op's Emergency Response Team, was put in place.

That team now managed Fonterra's response to help farmers get back on track, Rivers said.

"The Response Team's a group of specialists, they train every month actually, picking up medical and mechanical skills, and just being able to manage emergency situations."

So far the team had identified nearly 30 farms that needed assistance in repairs and clean up, but there were still quite a few farms they couldn't access.

Rivers was impressed with how quickly the team managed to "jump right into action and help".

"The emergency response team, they were joined by some of our tanker drivers and mechanics - even the Student Volunteer Army - and they've been out clearing fence lines and removing debris."

Further support was on the way, with extra people from Fonterra's North Island Emergency Response Teams travelling down to help.

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"So, lots of work to do and the teams are resetting every morning, just to identify which farms are accessible and what the needs are," Rivers said.

Meanwhile, Fieldays was coming up next week, and Fonterra would be there with its tent set up, along with its farmer-only area.

Management team and directors would be there to answer any questions farmers might have about the co-op's capital structure.

There would also be something a bit different this year, Rivers said.

"We're going to debut our Good Together tanker expo, which will highlight some great stories that's come out of the co-op along with interactive games and experiences for all age groups."

People would get the opportunity to have a go at driving a Fonterra tanker in the co-op's simulator, Rivers said.

"I don't want to give away too much, but it would certainly be worthwhile coming out and checking it out."