#Fonterra sorry for distress over scare

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Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings says the situation in China is stable and he is confident the dairy giant’s reputation will be restored.
Spierings, who flew to China at the weekend as the milk contamination scare unfolded, decided last night to come back to New Zealand.
The feedback from Chinese customers and authorities was that «they really appreciated the openness from day one,» he said.
«That reputation will be restored based on the actions we have taken.»
Chinese officials told him they understood human errors happened, and what mattered was the way the situation was responded to, he said.
Spierings apologised again to the New Zealand public, saying he understood «the anxiety and distress this issue has caused».
He confirmed that all of the potentially contaminated whey powder had been accounted for and pulled from shelves.
Spierings said he knew what had happened, with the contamination the result of an improperly cleaned pipe at a plant – but not why.
He confirmed that Fonterra had already launched an internal inquiry to examine the processes in question, as well as the time frame for dealing with the problem.
«That investigation is under way, and we will keep Government first, and media and public informed of our findings.»
Short-term corrective actions included an enhanced testing regime until the investigation was complete.
«We want to be 200 per cent sure on what’s going out from New Zealand into markets,» Spierings said.
Asked whether heads would roll, Spierings said it would depend on the inquiry results. The prospect of his own resignation was not up to him, but to the board, he said.
WIDE-RANGING INVESTIGATION
Prime Minister John Key and Spierings exchanged texts late through last night about the upcoming inquiry into the dairy giant’s milk contamination scare.
Key said the investigation would be broad ranging and of the «highest integrity».
There were questions that had to be answered, including an explanation for the delay between Fonterra discovering tests had revealed a potential contamination of some whey products, and passing that information on to the Government. Fonterra had the test results last Wednesday, but MPI was not told till Friday morning.
Key confirmed today that by law Fonterra had 24 hours to tell Government-owned food safety agency Assure Quality once a major problem was discovered, and there was a further 24 hours after that before the Ministry for Primary Industries needed to be informed.
«So I think that’s broadly where there was that 48 hour window….of course you can make all sorts of cases to say if something is that significant then you aren’t going to wait all that time. They are the kinds of questions we want to ask in an inquiry.»
The Government had started asking those questions but the priority was tracking down all potentially contaminated product.
Key confirmed he had a series of exchanges with Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings last night and had made it clear there would need to be an inquiry.
«He left me a really long voice mail; I tried to get him back and missed him so we exchanged texts very late through the night but essentially I made it pretty clear to him that these are the questions that will need to be answered. There will be inquiries that have to be held.»
The shape of any inquiry was yet to be fleshed out and he would be taking some advice before announcing it, Key said.
«But it will be broad ranging is the way I see it going.»
BOSSES FRONT
Critics of Fonterra chairman John Wilson’s public no-show during this week’s botulism scare fallout will finally hear his thoughts on a special Sky TV broadcast by the company tomorrow.
Wilson and Spierings will be on channel 950 from 3pm to 10pm, on the hour, every hour providing a full update on the whey protein concentrate recall.
Although Wilson has been in regular contact with shareholder-suppliers through email updates, his absence from press conferences and interviews has been slammed by former Federated Farmers dairy head Lachlan McKenzie and noted in some calls taken this week by Fonterra Shareholders Council chairman Ian Brown.
»Where’s Johnny?,» said McKenzie.
»The first principle of public relations is to front. You front to your peers, you front to your customers and in the most serious cases, you front the farmers and you front the Government.»
The Government was acting as if it was speaking on behalf of Fonterra when the cooperative should be doing that themselve, McKenzie said.
»He has to talk on the radio, he has to front the television and he has to answer the questions to the papers and be able to be directly quoted. He has to come out and say ‘sorry we’ve stuffed up’, and someone has to fall on their sword.
RELIEF AT STABLE PRICES
Earlier today there was a sigh of relief after Fonterra got off lightly in an overnight global dairy auction but Trade Minister Tim Groser warns the company is «not out of the woods yet».
Prices at Fonterra’s international dairy auction fell overnight – the first auction to be held since the dairy giant’s milk formula contamination scare became public – but an economist says there is no cause for alarm.
«It’s a very small movement, a really mild fall,» ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley said of the 2.4 per cent drop in in GlobalDairyTrade Price Index.
The online auction is considered a barometer of international dairy prices and the world’s appetite for protein and Fonterra is the biggest seller on the platform.
Fonterra’s handling of the discovery that some whey products might be contaminated with a bacteria linked to botulism has been slated, and the crisis threatens to cause huge damage to New Zealand’s «100 per cent pure» brand.
The state-run Chinese media questioned whether problems in New Zealand’s quality control systems were «systemic» and described the 100 per cent pure brand as a «festering sore».
Groser told Radio New Zealand a 2.4 per cent drop in price was «nothing in terms of monthly variations».
«It would be one of the smaller variations up or down,» he said.
«So my political takeaway is it means international dairy prices remain very high. Fonterra continues, in spite of what’s happened, to command a price premium over other producers.»
But Fonterra and New Zealand was «not out of the woods yet».
«It’s not now settled in any sense whatsoever,» Groser said.
People still had to be vigilant and pay attention to health advice, as authorities continued to work toward collecting all potentially affected product.
Groser acknowledged, meanwhile, that Fonterra still had questions to answer about its handling of the issue, but said now was not the time to answer those. The priority was to «nail this down to the last can».
Fonterra says about 10 per cent of potentially affected product has not yet been traced.
«It’s the reputational risk that’s at issue but the best way to fix that is to fix the immediate problem. We’re definitely on top of the problem but not yet resolved it.»
The Government yesterday launched a mass advertising campaign to inform parents about the recall of infant formula products linked to the contamination scare and said there had been no notifications of babies or infants with clostridium botulinim in New Zealand.
Infant formula maker Nutricia late Monday extended the recall on the range of Karicare infant formula as a result of the contamination issue.
Fonterra faces multiple inquiries into the crisis and it has still failed to explain delays between discovering high bacteria levels in a batch tested in March, and waiting for further tests before notifying the Government last Friday.
Prime Minister John Key yesterday signalled he would fly to China if necessary to stem the fallout as the contamination scare revives memories of the 2008 melamine scandal in China, which killed six babies and made hundreds more sick.
The crisis is likely to accelerate a review of infant formula market assurance measures announced in June and could lead to higher regulatory standards.
 
Source: Stuff

Mirá También

Así lo expresó Domingo Possetto, secretario de la seccional Rafaela, quien además, afirmó que a los productores «habitualmente los ignoran los gobiernos». Además, reconoció la labor de los empresarios de las firmas locales y aseguró que están «esperanzados» con la negociación entre SanCor y Adecoagro.

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