increase font size
Meat Industry Excellence (MIE) says Silver Fern Farms shareholders need to carefully scrutinise the capital-raising proposal put forward by the cooperative’s board.
MIE chair, Peter McDonald, says despite what the company is saying, it is questionable that this proposal is the best or only option available to the company or to farmers.
MIE is encouraging farmers to become engaged with understanding and debating the proposal, and with asking questions of the SFF Board.
McDonald adds, “Why has a potential 50% partner been granted executive powers at board level which doesn’t seem to be reflective of their proposed share?
“The good is often the enemy of the better,” … “Of course there are some positive elements to the proposal, but there seems to be very little understanding of the risks or costs to farmer shareholders and the industry.”
He says the biggest question of all in his mind is why just one option was being put forward by the board.
“Shareholders should be trusted to view and vote on more than one option,” he says.
“Shareholders are soon also being asked to vote on a resolution from SFF shareholders themselves asking the board to more closely examine the benefits of a combined cooperative model, arising from MIE’s industry analysis.
“It’s quite extraordinary that the board is pursuing, almost out of left field, a proposal that opens the door to a foreign takeover instead.”
MIE was encouraging farmers to ask questions of the SFF board, and to carefully evaluate the proposal.
“In the meantime, we are encouraging Silver Fern Farms shareholders to become very engaged with this process,” he says. “Attend meetings, and pass on information to other shareholders.”
Plenty of good commentary and information was emerging, he says. In the end, the decision was in the hands of SFF shareholders, and it was a decision that could significantly influence the fate of the meat export industry.
“The sweeteners being offered to shareholders in the deal ought not to be the deciding factor,” says McDonald.
“If anything, farmers should be asking why the deal requires a financial sweetener to shareholders if it makes sense in the long run.”
As dairy farmers lock in plans for the upcoming mating season, a partnership between Fonterra and Silver Fern Farms has been formed with the aim of making it simpler to create additional value from calves not entering the replacement herd.
Applications for Silver Fern Farms Co-operative's next board-appointed farmer director are open.
Silver Fern Farms has tackled the ongoing war-induced shipping challenges to mideast markets by airlifting 90 tonnes of chilled New Zealand lamb and beef to the United Arab Emirates.
Silver Fern Farms has successfully produced and delivered 90 tonnes of premium chilled New Zealand lamb and beef to the United Arab Emirates via airfreight.
Silver Fern Farms has announced a major capital investment valued at over $100 million to redevelop freezing, cold storage, and automation facilities at its Finegand Site near Balclutha.
Federated Farmers has called on Central Otago District Council (CODC) to drop or vote down a plan to truck sludge from Alexandra and Cromwell to farmland near Lauder, warning it would compound an "outrageous" situation created by a separate council's decision weeks earlier.
Synlait has swung to second-half profit as operations stabilise, but the dairy processor still posted a $75.4m annual loss.
LIC shareholders have elected a new North Island representative to the co-operative's Board, along with five representatives to its Shareholder Reference Group (SRG), following the company's Annual Meeting held in Invercargill.
Farmers across parts of Southland and South Otago are continuing to deal with difficult conditions after a prolonged run of wet weather, with pressure building around feed supply, stock management, pasture damage, farm infrastructure and everyday workloads.
Federated Farmers says it welcomes Labour's commitment to reviewing the Sharemilking Agreements Act, calling on other major parties to do the same.
For Canterbury dairy farmers Sian Meijer and Rick Wobben, wearable technology has become one of their most valuable on-farm tools - helping manage 1850 cows across an expansive, high-performing dairy operation while improving efficiency, mating outcomes and day-to-day decision making.
OPINION: The same mainstream media muppets that brought you Jacindamania in 2017 have been flat out pimping for the Opportunities…
OPINION: Your old mate reckons the atrocious way farmers in the UK are treated by their lords and masters in…
