New Zealand police said on Tuesday it had arrested a 60-year-old businessman suspected of threatening to contaminate infant formula in NZ, the world’s largest dairy exporter, and charged the man with two counts of criminal blackmail.
The man was charged in an Auckland court after an 11-month investigation.
Police and NZ’s agricultural industry have stressed that the country’s dairy products and infant formula are safe.
Letters sent to the national farmers’ group and dairy giant Fonterra last November, accompanied by packages of infant formula laced with pesticide 1080, demanded that the use of the toxic pesticide be stopped by the end of March.
China is the biggest buyer of NZ dairy products, and the head of a NZ exporter’s group said in March there had been a fall in Chinese demand after the threat to infant formula, which is prized among China’s middle class.
“We’ve done everything to ensure that the public weren’t in danger throughout our investigation. There was a huge testing, regime,” said Mike Bush, NZ police commissioner.
The testing of formula will continue as part of manufacturers’ food safety measures, he added.
Police said it believes the accused man acted alone but that it would continue to investigate the threat.
In 2013 NZ’s dairy industry was hit by a contamination scare when a botulism-causing bacteria was thought to be found in one of Fonterra’s products. The scare prompted a recall of infant formula in China, but the discovery was later found to be false.
Dairy products make up more than seven per cent of NZ’s gross domestic product and farmers have been struggling financially with this year’s plummet in global dairy prices.
“Fonterra is pleased to hear that an arrest has been made as part of the investigation into the criminal blackmail threat made public in March this year,” says Fonterra CEO, Theo Spierings.
“We would like to thank MPI and the NZ police for their continued and exhaustive efforts on behalf of the NZ dairy industry, retailers and the general public.
“We’d also like to acknowledge the significant joint industry response to this threat.”
The news of the arrest appeared to have unsettled the kiwi dollar, which dipped to a session low of $0.6694, having been as high as $0.6720 earlier on Tuesday.
