Chester Borrows: Whanganui - the big cheese

Chester Borrows PHOTO/FILE

WHANGANUI has so much good stuff going on around town and in the electorate, but we often don't hear much about those enterprises going on in towns beyond the centre of gravity that is Whanganui city.

However, I have rediscovered another operation that makes us once again a legend in our own lunchbox.

This week saw the opening of a new cheese line at the Fonterra plant in Eltham. The plant will make slice-on-slice cheese for such things as hamburgers, but the "cheese single" has been part of Kiwi culture for 30-plus years. It is big, and the factory is now able to make 2.3 billion slices of cheese per year.

If you go into a McDonald's restaurant in the Middle East, Africa, China, southeast Asia or Australia, you'll be eating cheese from Eltham.

This is the first new investment Fonterra has made since its inception in 2000 and is a very welcome addition to capacity; at a cost of a whopping $32 million.

The factory at Eltham produces 70,000 tonnes of processed, natural block and shredded cheese, while Fonterra employs about 700 people and so is a big employer in the South Taranaki corner of the Whanganui electorate.

Just around the corner from the plant is the Anzco freezing works and yesterday while one bunch of farmers were celebrating dairy another bunch were touring the freezing works looking at beef patties, also for the hamburger market. How's that for an industry cluster?

Eltham is one of those understated towns.

The first town to have a tar-sealed road in the New Zealand was Eltham; the conception of the one-pound block of butter by Chinese entrepreneur Chew Chong was in Eltham, which founded the international dairy trade, now the cornerstone of our economy.

The rotary cowshed was invented in Eltham and this revolutionised high volume milk recovery and allowed hundreds of cows to be milked in the same time as much smaller numbers were being milked through the herringbone sheds.

So there you have it ...

-If you go to Beijing or Shanghai, the massive electronic signs may well have been made on Somme Pde.

-Go to the finals of Wimbledon and the racquet string may be from Kaupokonui.

-Go to France or the States and your croissant may well be from Manaia.

-See a New York or German fire officer and they'll be wearing a helmet from Castlecliff.

-The honey on your toast in the hotel in Hong Kong is from Waverley.

-The newspaper you'll read in Singapore is made from trees from Upokongaro.

-The Coast Guard vessel in the United Arab Emirates was built on Taup Quay.

-The health products, masks and safety equipment used in some European countries are made in Pacific Place.

-The burger patties you eat anywhere in North America may well be made in any one of the five freezing companies in the electorate.

-And the cheese scone you order in the caf in Harrods will come from Eltham.

Whanganui is famous for its river ... and so much more. Just magic.