Planned Southland plant-based milk factory now heading elsewhere
Planned Southland plant-based milk factory now heading elsewhere
A planned Southland plant-based milk manufacturing factory will now be built elsewhere, most likely in Canterbury.
Southland just can't seem to get decent investment rolling :( I had been looking forward to a locally manufactured, plant based milk alternative.
It seems they have decided to go with a bigger plant than originally planned so perhaps they need to be closer to Christchurch's port. I do worry about how much water will be needed, Canterbury isn't exactly known for an oversupply of water.
Oat milk production uses a lot less water than Cow milk production? (>1/10th) and won't shitty up our rivers.
Perfectly good port at Bluff.
Instead, they want to grow Oats down here and then transport to CC for processing - yeah nah - makes little sense to me.
Oat milk production uses a lot less water than Cow milk production? (>1/10th) and won’t shitty up our rivers.
I'm not worried about oat milk instead of cow milk (that would be great), I'm worried about oat milk production on top of cow milk production.
Perfectly good port at Bluff.
There is a port at bluff. It handles significantly lower volumes than Christchurch and this may be a concern if they want to be world leading at oat milk.
Instead, they want to grow Oats down here and then transport to CC for processing - yeah nah - makes little sense to me.
It would use a lot less fuel to transport the oats than to transport the oat milk, if they still had to go to Christchurch.
It would be interesting to know what led to the decision. They originally planned the factory for Southland, so must not have been concerned about it at the start. I wonder if they came across political problems with councils or consent or something and decided it was too hard and to try somewhere else.
Great South 'supports' decision to shift planned factory out of Southland
A follow-up story today, which doesn't really offer much more than the following:
For the success of this greater vision, it is vital that our planned manufacturing base is in the location that allows easy connection and collaboration with industry and infrastructure.
I'm guessing things like packaging, flavouring etc., might be the "connection and collaboration" bits?
Still no answers from Great South and some starting to question why?
Invercargill Councillor calls for 'please explain' from Great South
A couple of comments at the end of the article provide some idea of the feeling of locals about the ratepayer investments and potential conflict of interest surrounding the decisions being made.
I may have missed this originally, but it seems the company building the oat milk factory is 49% owned by the Southland councils? I'd also be pretty annoyed about putting all that work into it then losing out without explanation.
One step more complicated than that. The 4 southland councils (District and Regional) are 48% shareholders of Great South. Great South is 49% shareholder in New Zealand Functional Foods (NZFF) who are proposing to build the Oat Milk factory in Canterbury instead of north of Invercargill.
To make it even worse one of the Great South board members (the Chair) is also on the NZFF board and is not a Southland resident.
It appears to be a complete shit show, and no clear detail of why the decision to move the factory has yet been given.
The saga continues, still with no reason for the move. Though there is some hinting that funding could be the reason?
Great South shareholder angst spills into article comments section
Unfortunately the complete lack of transparency in all facets of Council is a VERY common theme in the South.
There are those who are not happy with the decision
Great South, the Southland Regional Development Agency, is funded by the four district/regional councils, i.e. ratepayers, so there is good reason for not being happy about the support they are giving for the relocation. Great South appear to be very quiet around providing meaningful details for the support and the reasons for the move.
Sorry, this link is probably paywalled:
Questions over oat milk plant relocation
No additional detail, but it is good to see the more 'mainstream' papers finally picking the story up.
Some key points/quotes from the article:
Southland leaders are still scratching their heads wondering how a 10-year Great South project to construct an oat milk plant in Southland will end up in Canterbury.
Some Invercargill leaders were calling for a full inquiry into the matter.
The company has yet to explain how it intends to offset the transport costs and increased carbon footprint associated with transporting oats from Southland to Canterbury.
The company being NZFF.
The Otago Daily Times has yet to receive a response to what supply contract conditions would be provided to Southland oat growers to ensure they would be competitive with Canterbury’s agriculture and grain market.
The Otago Daily Times understands NZFF was having discussions with global investors that had influenced the decision to move the plant to the Canterbury region.
Since the only two NZFF investors listed are Great South (49%) and The Warehouse (51%), does that mean that The Warehouse is dictating terms or that other investors are being brought in?
Great South chief executive Chami Abeysinghe said she thought it was important Southland got the "bigger picture". "While we're putting that disappointment aside, we need to continue to support this project," she said. "And that means we bring new technology to New Zealand, we place New Zealand in a position of advantage as a leader on a global scale. "So, we're proud that we've been able to bring that to us, to this country, even if it's not within Southland."
It is a shame that no one has bothered to present the "bigger picture" to Southlanders for them to "get"!!!
Personally, I think Great South and the Southland Councils really need to be taken to task over this - the ratepayers have/are funding this, so have an absolute right to know what is going on and how/why these decisions are being made. Unfortunately, this is what Southlanders have come to expect from their Councils, and it is not good enough.