Ex-speaker loses bid for board seat

At the cooperative’s annual meeting last week, shareholders re-elected sitting directors Jessie Chan-Dorman and Tony Coltman.

Both retired by rotation and offered themselves for re-election. Carter was the third candidate.

Chan-Dorman says she is humbled to be part of the Ruralco team. She echoed a shareholder’s call that the co-op was one team working together for its farmers.

And she acknowledged the challenges and opportunities ahead for farming, saying Ruralco will support farmers as they make the transition. 

 Coltman, who joined the board in 2016, says he was honoured to be re-elected. 

“It was great to see such high participation rates and to see the seats contested. This is a healthy position for the board.”

Coltman says he is acutely aware of the need to keep the business and its people in a strong position and help it to evolve in a competitive market. 

Shareholders voted online for directors for the first time and chairman Alistair Body said the voting went well.

“Most of the votes were cast prior to the AGM and in spite of this we still had a good attendance and participation at the meeting.” Shareholder participation rates were five times higher than last year.

At the meeting Body congratulated the board and management on their enabling the cooperative to remain competitive. He said Ruralco’s management and board agree on the business model and its future. 

The co-op had “positive financial results and many accolades to its name despite a difficult trading year, with the weather effecting irrigation and grain trading, and uncertainty and farmers’ conservativism affecting their spending.”