Packages containing dairy formula which tested positive for the pesticide sodium fluoroacetate, or 1080, were received at the national farmers’ co-operative Fonterra and the Federated Farmers headquarters in November 2014, said police.
Accompanying letters threatened to contaminate commercial supplies with the poison unless its usage ceased by the end of March 2015.
The controversial pesticide, which has been used in some form in New Zealand since the 1960s, is aerially applied throughout the country to control populations of possums, rats and stoats.
“While there is a possibility that this threat is a hoax, we must treat the threat seriously and a priority investigation is under way,” said the deputy police commissioner, Mike Clement.
He urged anyone with knowledge of the threats to come forward. “The letter writer may not have really considered the implications of their actions when this communication was drafted. Now is the time to put this right by picking up the phone and calling us,” he said.
The prime minister, John Key, said that an announcement had been scheduled next week, but that was brought forward following media inquiries.
While the police stressed they were dealing with a “criminal blackmail threat” rather than terrorism, Key disagreed.
“It’s a form of ecoterrorism, no doubt,” he told reporters.
At a press conference, Key said: “My message to New Zealanders is that while it is very likely this threat is a hoax, we as a government have to take it seriously, I can assure you we are.”
Asked why it had taken almost four months for the threats to be made public, Key said: “The first priority for police was to carry out a thorough investigation and obviously we also needed to work with the industry to ensure every step was taken to protect the supply chain before the public was informed.”
Trading in Fonterra and other dairy company shares was suspended on Tuesday afternoon.
Since November, around 40,000 raw milk and powder samples had tested negative for 1080, said the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).
The deputy director general of MPI, Scott Gallacher, urged parents against ceasing use of milk formula.
“We are confident that New Zealand infant and other formula is just as safe today as it was before this threat was made. People should keep using it as they always have,” he said.
“The ability for anybody to deliberately contaminate infant and other formula during manufacturing is extremely low. Regardless, we encourage people to be vigilant when buying infant and other formula. Our advice is always to check packaging for signs of tampering. We are reinforcing that advice as a result of this blackmail threat.”
Theo Spierings, chief executive of dairy giant Fonterra, said the company had taken “immediate and decisive steps” to ensure product safety.
“All of our milk and products are safe and of high quality, and our supply chain continues to be secure,” he said.
“We are playing our part in helping the government manage the criminal threat, as is the rest of the dairy industry.”
Fonterra was fined NZ$300m after a bacteria suspected to cause botulism was discovered during testing in 2013. A large-scale international recall of infant formula followed, and China, which imports most of its milk powder from New Zealand, issued a temporary ban on the products. Subsequent test found the bacteria was not in fact the botulism-related strain.
While New Zealand is well-known internationally for its sheep population, recent decades have seen a movement towards dairy farming, driven by changing Chinese appetites. Dairy accounts for about a third of all exports from New Zealand, leading some to dub the country the “Saudi Arabia of milk”.
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