Fonterra says incident at Edendale plant not an explosion

18-Sep-2016 - Last updated on 19-Sep-2016 at 10:11 GMT

Early indications were that there was an explosion at the Fonterra plant in Edendale, New Zealand, however the company says the noise was caused by a silo collapse damaging a pipebridge.

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Fonterra says all employees at its Edendale milk processing plant in New Zealand are safe following the collapse of a raw milk silo on Friday afternoon.

The silo was one of about 100 on site, which the company says represents less than 10% of Edendale’s total capacity for raw milk storage.

While the cause of the incident is still under investigation, COO of global operations Robert Spurway said that there was no explosion, contradicting early reports from both local media outlets and on social media.

Spurway said that the silo appeared to have failed, with the subsequent collapse responsible for damaging a nearby pipebridge, which he explained was what created the loud noise heard by those in the vicinity.

“Whilst some of the damage may take several weeks to repair, the situation is under control and we are now working to get the plant back up and running as normal,” Spurway said.

Fonterra said there could be a temporary impact on milk collection in the Southland region, with impacted farmers being kept informed of developments.