Sanitarium has confirmed Marmite-lovers will still have to wait until mid-July before the spread is back on the shelves.
 
The CEO of the company, Pierre van Heerden, told TVNZ the focus has been turned to fixing the Christchurch manufacturing plant, which used to produce 640,000 kilograms of Marmite every year.
 
"Our first priority is to deconstruct the manufacturing tower. After we've deconstructed parts of the building we can strengthen the building and put a roof on it," he said.
 
"We've been working on it since we found the damage in November and suspended operations."
 
The Christchurch plant, which was shut down because of earthquake damage, is the sole manufacturer of the iconic spread.
 
Van Heerden told TVNZ he wants the reconstruction to happen "as quickly as possible" to get the product back in stores by mid-July.

The damaged tower is attached to the Weetbix factory in Christchurch.
 
Earlier this year Sanitarium had to halt manufacturing the cereal, while it shipped production up to a smaller factory in Auckland.
 
Sanitarium offered 36 workers redundancy in February as a result of the closure.
 
At the time it said Marmite machinery would be moved to another section in the factory that is safer, as the company intended to continue manufacturing the spread, at least in the short term.
 
Sanitarium has considered importing a similar yeast-based spread from abroad but says the taste is too different for Kiwi taste buds .

Marmageddon

The news of Marmageddon, as coined by some media outlets, saw the spread's price surge on Trade Me and the shortage trended on Twitter around the world.

The Huffington Post, Forbes, The Daily Mail in England, BBC and CNN are among international media organisations who have reported on "the great New Zealand Marmite famine".

Tim Worstall, a Forbes contributor, wrote that the "rest of the world will have no idea at all about the seriousness of this problem".
 
"But serious it is. Supermarkets across the country are running out, prices have doubled, even tripled, on Trade Me and it's of such seriousness that they've actually interviewed the Prime Minister about it."
 
In response, Sanitarium launched an advertising campaign called Don't Freak featuring personalities like former All Blacks coach Sir Graham Henry urging Kiwis not to panic over the shortage.
 
The company's GM urged Kiwis not to "panic buy" the beloved breakfast spread, saying "there are other Kiwis whose jars might not be as full as yours".
 
He also suggested Marmite lovers should limit themselves to eating it on toast, because the heat of the bread spreads the yeast-based substance further.

Original article Published: 7:43AM Tuesday April 17, 2012 Source: ONE News
Link to original article:  http://tvnz.co.nz/business-news/fresh-batches-marmite-still-months-away-4836215

I can't stand either vegemite or marmite.  They both look and smell like something that has been scraped off the diff of a truck.  Yuuuuuuck!