Manufacturing

100% NZ Owned and Operated Farm Fertiliser and Feed Operations

In addition to the significant economic contribution we make to agriculture’s bottom line, we are also supporting our local communities with six manufacturing plants located right here in New Zealand.

Fertiliser 

Ballance has three fertiliser manufacturing plants across New Zealand. We have two phosphate fertiliser manufacturing plants, one situated in Mount Maunganui and the other in Awarua (Invercargill). Our Kapuni (Taranaki) plant uses natural gas to produce urea, a nitrogen fertiliser.

All of our sites are ISO 14001 certified. This is an international environmental management standard which is independently verified and recognised worldwide. The standard requires environmental aspects and impacts to be identified and effectively managed, it supports the continual improvement of environmental performance through efficient use of resources and waste reduction. 

Mount Maunganui Plant 

Our Mount Maunganui site produces superphosphate – the most common fertiliser used in New Zealand farming. It contains both phosphate and sulphur, two nutrients that are typically deficient in New Zealand soils. 

We import the phosphate rock from all around the world to use in the manufacture of fertiliser. The sulphur we use is a waste product from oil refining and comes from one main source - Canada. 

We recycle the sulphur to make sulphuric acid. This is then reacted with the phosphate rock to solubilise the phosphate, making superphosphate fertiliser. The production of sulphuric acid also generates heat, which we capture and convert to electricity. We create enough electricity to power our site and the excess (which is enough to power around 3000 homes in our community) is fed back into the National Grid. Sulphuric acid is also sold into local industry for industrial cleaning, sanitation, wastewater treatment, power generation and food/pharmaceutical manufacture.

Consented activity 

Our Mount Maunganui plant operates under several resource consents to manufacture fertiliser and sulphuric acid, this includes discharge to air, and stormwater/wastewater discharges to Tauranga Harbour

We have two consented ‘discharges to air’: 

  • Sulphur dioxide(SO₂) emissions from the Acid Plant in the production of sulphuric acid 

  • Fluoride and SO2 emissions from the Acidulation Plant in the production of phosphate fertiliser. 

We continuously monitor emission levels at the point of discharge at our acid plant for sulphur dioxide. We run in-process checks and weekly lab tests for sulphur dioxide and fluoride at our acidulation plant.

We conduct  continuous ambient air quality monitoring for dust levels both on our site, often referred to as PM10 (PM10 is particulate matter 10 micrometres or less in diameter). Our off-site PM10 monitoring ceased in mid-2022 but the data for this is provided below alongside our other discharge data.

Our consent data is shared below. The data is updated regularly. Last update Jan 2024.

Awarua Plant 

Ballance’s only South Island fertiliser manufacturing plant sits at Awarua, south of Invercargill. Like our Mount Maunganui plant, the site manufactures superphosphate fertiliser. Fertiliser produced in Awarua is distributed to farms throughout the South Island. 

Consented Activity 

Our Awarua plant operates under three resource consents to manufacture phosphate fertiliser. These include a discharge to air, discharge to water, and the uptake of bore water. 

Our discharge to air consent is for the discharge of fluoride and sulphur dioxide from our acidulation plant stack in the production of phosphate fertiliser. As required by our consent, we run in-process checks and at least fortnightly lab tests for sulphur dioxide and fluoride at our acidulation plant.

Our consent data is shared below. The data is updated regularly Last update April 2023.

Kapuni Plant 

Ballance owns the country’s only ammonia-urea manufacturing plant, which is located at Kapuni, in Taranaki. This high-tech plant operates to stringent international standards, converting atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia and then to urea. The natural gas used to power this plant is sourced from the nearby Maui gas field.

Consented activity

Our Kapuni plant operates under seven resource consents to manufacture urea. These include abstraction of water, discharge of wastewater and emissions to air.

Our discharge to air consent is for the discharge of ammonia and urea from the dust scrubber stack in our urea plant.

Our emissions to air are measured twice per year and reported to Taranaki Regional Council for inclusion in their annual report on the Kapuni operation.

Our consent data is shared below. The data is updated regularly. Last update Dec 2023.

Our water abstraction from the local river is monitored continuously and updated quarterly.

Animal feed 

Our animal feed business, SealesWinslow, has manufacturing sites in Morrinsville and Wanganui in the North Island and Ashburton in the South Island. SealesWinslow supplies custom blended pelletised feed to farmers throughout New Zealand. In addition, the company produces feed blocks, milk additives, silage inoculants and mycotoxin neutralisers. 

To maintain product quality, the mills have developed effective quality control systems that cover raw material sourcing, formulations, manufacturing, storage, transport, and finished product testing. 

Morrinsville Mill 

Established in 1968, the Morrinsville site was at one stage New Zealand’s largest independent feed mill. With just under two million dairy cows within 160km of the site, the mill is well positioned to supply feed to farmers in the Waikato region and beyond. Investing for growth, in 2007 a new $16 million feed mill in Morrinsville was commissioned, providing a four-fold lift in capacity, and including the very latest state of the art technology out of Europe and Canada. 

Whanganui Mill 

SealesWinslow’s newest feed mill opened for business in Whanganui in 2013 following a multimillion-dollar project to upgrade an old stock feed mill. The plant can produce blends and pellets, as well as kibbling maize. With production reaching 12 to 15 tonnes per hour, the Wanganui mill is the biggest and fastest of the SealesWinslow plants. It also utilises state-of-the-art control systems to manage product integrity and quality control. 

Ashburton Mill 

The Ashburton feed mill was initially established as a specialist ruminant feed mill to supply the growing demands of the dairy industry. Today it continues to feature as a leading New Zealand producer of high-quality stock feeds for calves, dairy cows, cattle, and sheep servicing SealesWinslow’s.

Operations Integrity

Ballance applies “Operations Integrity” to all of its business activities - a name which describes our Safety, Health, Environmental and Quality management systems. An essential part of Operations Integrity is the ongoing, independent, verification of these business management systems. 

Our environmental and quality management systems are independently certified to the international standards of ISO 14001:2015 and 9001:2015.

 

ISO 14001:2015 
Corporate, 
Mount manufacturing, 
Kapuni manufacturing, 
Awarua manufacturing.

ISO 9001: 2015
Awarua manufacturing,
Kapuni - statutory equipment,
Mount - statutory equipment.

 

Zero Harm

Operationally, our aim is to ensure everyone gets home safely and we do no harm to people or the environment -today, tomorrow and every day.

To help us meet this objective we are continuing to implement standardised Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) management systems across the entire business. We have already made great progress with our programme, which has continuous improvement through our safety evolution programme.