Survey shows most Fonterra farmers plan to use capital return for debt reduction
A large slice of the $3.2 billion proposed capital return for Fonterra farmer shareholders could end up with the banks.
Westland says discussions with interested parties centered on a competitive milk price, milk pick-up and a fair value for co-op shares.
Chairman Pete Morrison won’t comment on unsuccessful bidders, saying “it was a confidential process”.
This month Fonterra confirmed that it held talks with Westland to find “a co-op solution”. But the talks broke down.
Morrison was asked if he could talk about discussions with Fonterra.
“The key for us is a guarantee that milk would be picked up from one end of the West Coast to another, a guaranteed competitive payout like the rest of NZ was getting and top value for our shares,” he says.
Fonterra chairman John Monaghan says it had “a very early discussion with Westland about finding a co-op solution to the position they found themselves in”.
“We weren’t able to progress and they went into another process.”
Monaghan expressed sadness at the “demise of another co-op” and said Fonterra would welcome any Westland suppliers willing to continue supplying milk to a co-op.
BNZ says it is backing aspiring dairy farmers through an innovative new initiative that helps make the first step to farm ownership or sharemilking a little easier.
LIC chief executive David Chin says meeting the revised methane reduction targets will rely on practical science, smart technology, and genuine collaboration across the sector.
Lincoln University Dairy Farm will be tweaking some management practices after an animal welfare complaint laid in mid-August, despite the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) investigation into the complaint finding no cause for action.
A large slice of the $3.2 billion proposed capital return for Fonterra farmer shareholders could end up with the banks.
Opening a new $3 million methane research barn in Waikato this month, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay called on the dairy sector to “go as fast as you can and prove the concepts”.
New Zealand’s trade with the European Union has jumped $2 billion since a free trade deal entered into force in May last year.

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