Divestment means Fonterra can focus on its strengths
OPINION: Fonterra's board has certainly presented us, as shareholders, with a major issue to consider.
Fonterra farmers have elected Canterbury farmer John Nicholls to the board.
Nicholls received 53% support in the second director election; the other candidate Jamie Tuuta received 37% support.
Nicholls’ election means Fonterra farmers have only elected one of the three candidates recommended by Fonterra directors and the Shareholders Council this year.
The outcome also raises questions on the independent candidate assessment panel (CAP), which interviews potential candidates and recommends them to the board and council.
Outgoing Zespri chairman Peter McBride is the only successful candidate recommended by the CAP process and backed by the board and councillor.
McBride was successful in the first election along with Leonie Guiney, who like Nicholls, self-nominated with the backing of farmer shareholders.
Former Fonterra director Ashley Waugh, who was unsuccessful in the first election, and Tuuta were recommended by the CAP process and Fonterra’s board.
The first election saw only two successful candidates declared forcing the council to run a second election to fill a third vacancy on the board.
Returning Officer Warwick Lampp, of electionz.comLtd, declared the final result of the second 2018 election today.
The voting return was 64.10% by milk solids, being 5,324 votes cast from 9,347 shareholders of which 79.19% voted via the internet and 20.81% voted by post.
Nicholls was a previous Fonterra Shareholders Councillor and is currently chair of MHV water, NZ’s largest inter-generational irrigation co-operative providing water to 50,000ha in Ashburton District.
He takes up his position on the board immediately.
Meat co-operative, Alliance has met with a group of farmer shareholders, who oppose the sale of a controlling stake in the co-op to Irish company Dawn Meats.
Rollovers of quad bikes or ATVs towing calf milk trailers have typically prompted a Safety Alert from Safer Farms, the industry-led organisation dedicated to fostering a safer farming culture across New Zealand.
The Government has announced it has invested $8 million in lower methane dairy genetics research.
A group of Kiwi farmers are urging Alliance farmer-shareholders to vote against a deal that would see the red meat co-operative sell approximately $270 million in shares to Ireland's Dawn Meats.
In a few hundred words it's impossible to adequately describe the outstanding contribution that James Brendan Bolger made to New Zealand since he first entered politics in 1972.
Dawn Meats is set to increase its proposed investment in Alliance Group by up to $25 million following stronger than forecast year-end results by Alliance.
OPINION: Voting is underway for Fonterra’s divestment proposal, with shareholders deciding whether or not sell its consumer brands business.
OPINION: Politicians and Wellington bureaucrats should take a leaf out of the book of Canterbury District Police Commander Superintendent Tony Hill.