Keeping cyber attacks at bay
Fonterra says it takes the ongoing threat of 'adverse cyber action' extremely seriously.
Former Fonterra director Leonie Guiney says the co-op is facing a crisis of confidence.
She says the dairy co-op’s balance sheet is no longer in a position to handle more of the investment culture, while its leadership continues to deny there are any issues with strategic direction.
Guiney, a director for three years, says because the current leadership is overseeing the recruitment of a new chief executive, farmers face more of the same from the co-op.
“We have no indication of any review of Fonterra’s strategic direction, however, before they make this choice,” Guiney told Rural News.
“It’s hard to know what type of person you need if you haven’t articulated where you are going. When Fonterra has clarified a strategic direction shareholders can support with their capital, we will be able to employ the appropriate management and we will retain our milk supply.
“That may be specialist ingredients experience, for example, an area in which we have competitive strengths.
“Whatever the choices, Fonterra shareholders aren’t fools; they’ve heard the rhetoric on offshore milk pools for example, but they can read the numbers; these are not delivering to NZ farmers,” Guiney says.
“I firmly believe we must work together to retain our competitiveness and that our future is a cooperative one, but not without accountability for board and management’s performance with the owners’ capital.”
Guiney claims that if shareholders are not convinced, they will leave with their milk, which ultimately leaves Fonterra uncompetitive within NZ and in a destructive procurement-war cycle.
“We don’t need to let ourselves get to that position; what we do need is better-targeted investment in our areas of comparative advantages.”
Recent rain has offered respite for some from the ongoing drought.
New Zealand's TBfree programme has made great progress in reducing the impact of the disease on livestock herds, but there’s still a long way to go, according to Beef+Lamb NZ.
With much of the North Island experiencing drought this summer and climate change projected to bring drier and hotter conditions, securing New Zealand’s freshwater resilience is vital, according to state-owned GNS Science.
OPINION: Otago farmer and NZ First MP Mark Patterson is humble about the role that he’s played in mandating government agencies to use wool wherever possible in new and refurbished buildings.
For Wonky Box co-founder Angus Simms, the decision to open the service to those in rural areas is a personal one.
The golden age of orcharding in West Auckland was recently celebrated at the launch of a book which tells the story of its rise, then retreat in the face of industry change and urban expansion.
OPINION: The appendage swinging contest between the US and China continues, with China hitting back with a new rate of…
OPINION: The irony of President Trump’s tariff obsession is that the worst damage may be done to his own people.