Divestment means Fonterra can focus on its strengths
OPINION: Fonterra's board has certainly presented us, as shareholders, with a major issue to consider.
The mission of mymilk is to “mix it up” with competitors rather than lose that milk, says Fonterra’s chairman John Wilson.
“There has been some concern about whether mymilk is part of the cooperative or not,” he told the Northland Dairy Development Trust annual conference.
The new subsidiary is “specifically for 5% of our milk only and not any more”. “This is quite frankly to get out there and mix it up,” says Wilson.
“Not all farmers believe in joining the cooperative. We are getting farmers particularly in Southland and Canterbury – where we’re offering mymilk – who are saying clearly, ‘no, we don’t want to buy shares, we just want to supply milk’.
“That means we lose that milk and we have assets in Canterbury and Southland that are highly efficient and can process milk more efficiently than the average plant in New Zealand.
“So where we can secure that milk, understanding its transport cost, paying less than the milk price and processing efficiently – it has to be advantageous to the cooperative.
“Mymilk is a standalone subsidiary of Fonterra.
“It only has three or four people working in it…. Its job is to secure milk and prove to us it is profitable to do so, to get out there and mix it up… with competitors instead of sitting back and losing that milk… get that in and get that asset utilisation.
“Important here is that it must be profitable for the cooperative and it will be limited to 5% of our milk.”
Announced in December, mymilk will initially invite applications from farms in Canterbury, Otago and Southland not currently supplying Fonterra, for one year contracts renewable for a maximum of five years without the obligation to purchase Fonterra shares.
At any time mymilk suppliers can apply to join the cooperative, buy shares and supply Fonterra directly.
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: Ageing lefty Chris Trotter reckons that the decision to delay recognition of Palestinian statehood is more than just a fit…
OPINION: A mate of yours truly recently met someone at a BBQ who works at a big consulting firm who spent…