increase font size
Andrew Hoggard.
As well as laying out its new strategy, Fonterra should make clearer how it got into this trouble, says Federated Farmers national vice-president and dairy farmer Andrew Hoggard.
“I’d like to see them be a bit open and upfront about what has gone wrong, how it was wrong and what were the mistakes,” he told Dairy News.
He accepts he may be accused of living in the past but “if you don’t learn from history you are bound to repeat its mistakes”.
“So let’s make sure we know what the hell went wrong so we don’t repeat it.”
An example is the bonuses to former chief executive Theo Spierings for “f***ing the company up to be honest”. “How the hell you pay someone a bonus for the sort of mess created is beyond me.”
He hopes all those types of things have been tidied up and “we never see something like that again”.
“There is definitely a sense of frustration at what has been. At the same time I have picked up a degree of eagerness to move forward. Just as long as the new direction or strategy is clearly articulated to us.”
He has heard it said the focus will be more on New Zealand milk but nothing has yet been put in concrete about what the strategy “is and what it looks like”.
Dairy farmers hope that will be clearly articulated in the September update.
“I have picked up that people are more positive about the direction but they are still pretty pissed off about what has been.”
He doesn’t think Fonterra farmers will jump ship over the lack of dividend.
“We still have a good milk price. If you are upset that you are not going to get a dividend and you want to leave and supply someone else, nobody else will give you a dividend anyway. They will only give you a milk price very similar to Fonterra’s.
“There might be a few people who get upset by it and decide that is the way to go but for me the logic train doesn’t quite link up.”
The Government has struck a deal with New Zealand's poultry industry, agreeing how they will jointly prepare for and respond to exotic poultry diseases, including any possible outbreak of high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI).
OPINION: Newsroom is running a series of articles looking into the influence of lobbying and has kicked it off with agriculture.
The sale price of Fonterra’s global consumer and associated businesses to the world’s largest dairy company Lactalis has risen to $4.22 billion.
Federated Farmers says the final report into banking competition is a significant step forward for rural New Zealand - and a vindication of the farming sector's concern.
Fonterra chair Peter McBride expects a strong mandate from farmers shareholders for the proposed sale of its consumer and related businesses to Lactalis for $3.8 billion.
The Government has struck a deal with New Zealand's poultry industry, agreeing how they will jointly prepare for and respond to exotic poultry diseases, including any possible outbreak of high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI).
The conversion of productive farmland into trees has pretty much annihilated the wool industry.
OPINION: Productive whole farmlands conversions into forestry are becoming a thorny issue for the Government.
Thus far in 2025, the Hawke's Bay rescue helicopter crew have completed over 220 missions, resulting in numerous positive patient outcomes.
The New Zealand Food Network's (NZFN) fifth birthday celebrations have been boosted by a whopping five tonne meat donation from meat processor ANZCO.
Pukekohe vegetable growers farewelled 101-year-old Alan Wilcox in late July, celebrating his many achievements and reflecting the widespread respect in which he was held.
OPINION: Milking It reckons if you're National, looking at recent polls, the dream scenario is that the elusive economic recovery…
OPINION: Sydney has a $12 million milk disposal problem.
