Tauranga To Be Dairy Port

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31006, 11 March 1966, Page 3

Tauranga To Be Dairy Port

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, March 10.

The chairman of the Dairy Board (Sir Andrew Linton) said today that the Tauranga Harbour Board, the Dairy’ Board, the Conference Shipping Lines and the Auckland Farmers’ Freezing Company had agreed on steps to make Tauranga a major export port for dairy produce.

At present it is a major timber port and is not equipped to handle refrigerated produce. The Auckland Farmers’

Freezing Company would build a cool store. “Additional cool store space for dairy produce is required in the Auckland province because of expanding production, and because the increasing diversification of the dairy produce trade in terms of products and of markets requires more storage space,” said Sir Andrew Linton.

“Dairy companies in the area from Hamilton to beyond Opotiki are particularly interested in the possibilities of Tauranga.

“At present, the Port of Auckland handles over 90 per cent of the dairy produce manufactured for export in the Auckland province and the total for the province last season was approximately 280,000 tons. “In theory, Tauranga as an export loading port could eventually be expected to draw the goods manufactured by dairy companies which are now responsible for just over 50 per cent of the province’s output. “The rest would continue to go to Auckland principally, and to Whangarei and Opua. No redundancy of cool storage space at Auckland, Whangarei and Opua, however, is likely, chiefly because of the growth of the industry in the Auckland province,” said Sir Andrew Linton.