Superphosphate oversupply ends manufacturing at Ballance Agri-Nutrients in Mt Maunganui

Monday, 9 June 2025

Fertiliser manufacturer Ballance Agri-Nutrients is winding down production at its Mt Maunganui plant.

New Zealand fertiliser manufacturer Ballance Agri-Nutrients is shutting down manufacturing at its Mount Maunganui plant, axing 60 jobs.

The farmer and grower-owned co-operative was winding down super single phosphate (SSP) manufacturing at the Hewletts Rd site to make way for nutrient storage and distribution. It will maintain the location as its national support office.

The move would take staff numbers at the facility from 94 down to 34 from November.

The move follows Ravensdown decommissioning of its Dunedin manufacturing plant after more than 90 years, with the loss of 30 jobs.

Ballance chief executive Kelvin Wickham told The Post the company had been working to wind down production for the last year.

“For superphosphate in New Zealand, there is more supply than demand,” Wickham told The Post.

Ballance Agri-Nutrients chief executive Kelvin Wickham says staff can choose to take voluntary redundancy from July.

He said the plant was running at 50% capacity with demand dropping due to an oversupply of the fertiliser in recent years. The facility would require “millions” in investment over the next 15 to 20 years to keep it running.

Then, “there are extra costs to meet resource consents,” Wickham said.

The company would continue manufacturing phosphate in Invercargill and urea in Taranaki, and was sourcing imported ingredients from Canada, Morocco, China, Southeast Asia, Europe and Australia.

He said the strategy was to reallocate a limited capital pool to different parts of the value chain instead of spreading costs across two phosphate plants.

The next steps would be decommissioning the plants but “first and foremost, it’s working with the current team”, Wickham said.

Ballance Agri-Nutrients will continue manufacturing phosphate in Invercargill and urea in Taranaki.

“People do have the opportunity to take voluntary redundancy. We’re working through that until the end of July.”

“Everyone has roles until the end of November,” Wickham said.

“With an over capacity in New Zealand compared to the expected demand for this product, it is the right point in time for the co-operative to cease manufacturing at this location,” Wickham said.

The plant had been used for manufacturing for about 70 years. The company said maintaining a local presence in Mount Maunganui was important “as a critically strategic location for nutrient supply and distribution through the Port of Tauranga”.

Ballance Agri-Nutrients was one of two major fertiliser players in Aotearoa alongside Ravensdown. Both companies are represented by the Fertiliser Association of NZ (FANZ).

FANZ took legal action against Australian fertiliser manufacturer Marnco last year over shipments of much cheaper, and what FANZ called ‘substandard’, superphosphate, which didn’t contain the amount of phosphate that New Zealand products labelled as superphosphates do.

Marnco is about to have its products officially certified as superphosphate after the initial furore, adding more competition to the local fertiliser market.