Wanganui's new multi-million dollar milk powder plant is nine months from completion but already staff are flat out getting ready.
The construction of the Dairy Trust plant on the Affco site in Heads Rd is expected to provide more supply options for the region's dairy farmers and jobs for locals.
Dairy Trust
Wanganui milk liaison manager Hamish Thomson said he was very busy recruiting dairy farmers in the region.
He said some of those he had contracted were farmers wanting to convert their farms to dairy.
Dairy Trust chief executive Mark Fankhauser said they had contracted 30 per cent of the total milk suppliers the company hoped to get.
When asked how far geographically the company would service, Mr Fankhauser replied: "That's the question we are trying to get our heads around. Certainly we are going at least 90km [in each direction], up to Inglewood, New Plymouth, and down past Foxton."
He was unsure whether they would service Dannevirke and Raetihi. The plant will be competing against dominant milk giant Fonterra for the region's milk suppliers.
Dairy Trust national operations manager Steven Koekemoer told the Chronicle the plant was a replica of the Awarua milk processing plant in Southland, built earlier this year. Like Awarua, the plant would convert 200 million litres of milk a year, be the same size, and create around 20 jobs.
"They will be mostly operational jobs, but jobs will be available right up to management."
Construction of the Awarua plant cost $60 million, and the Wanganui plant is estimated to cost a similar amount.
Mr Koekemoer said the company would be hiring early in the new year, which would be followed by an extensive training programme.
Construction began on September 20 this year, and the plant was on target to be up and operating by August 1 next year.
Some of the features of the plant will include a 31m high milk powder tower, tanker unload bays, silo pads, a packing room and a host of engineered manufacturing equipment for converting milk to powder.
