Nominations open for co-op milk price panel member

Two members of the seven-member panel are nominees of the council: Currently, Fonterra farmer Bill Donaldson and Fred Ohlssen, who is independent of Fonterra, are members.

Council chair John Stevenson says the panel's role and responsibilities are key to overseeing the integrity of Fonterra Farmgate Milk Price.

The successful candidate will succeed Donaldson who has sat on the panel since late 2014. He will remain on the panel until September 2025, providing a transition period for the new council nominee.

"Bill has provided exceptional service to our co-op as a long-term member of the panel," says Stevenson.

The new council nominee will be an observer for the first 12 months and sit alongside Donaldson during that period.

"There's a steep learning curve joining the panel. Starting as an observer will enable our new nominee to contribute more effectively when they become a full member of the panel in September 2025," says Stevenson.

"Council is ideally seeking a dairy farmer supplying Fonterra who has deep on farm dairy experience and a strong understanding of what drives Fonterra's milk price.

"For this appointment it is important to council to target a Fonterra supplying farmer to ensure there continues to be more than one farmer perspective and mindset on the panel, recognising that legislation requires the panel to comprise a majority of members who are independent of Fonterra."

Applications from Fonterra farmers close on 8 July 2024.

The panel consists of an independent chair, David Pilkington, two nominees of the Minister of Agriculture, Professor Hamish Gow and Ming Lim-Pollard, two members who are appointees of the Co-operative Council, Bill Donaldson and Fred Ohlsson, a farmer elected Fonterra director, Leonie Guiney, and an appointed Fonterra director, Bruce Hassall.

The panel oversees the governance of the Farmgate Milk Price and the Milk Price Manual, including changes to the manual and verification by independent external experts of key parameters (such as resource usage rates, product yields and fixed manufacturing costs).

The panel is responsible for:

• Overseeing the calculation of the Farmgate Milk Price and making a recommendation on it to the Fonterra board.
• Providing recommendations to the Fonterra board on changes to the manual.
• Providing assurance to the Fonterra board that the Farmgate Milk Price has been calculated in accordance with the manual.

The Fonterra board is responsible for the forecast of the annual Farmgate Milk Price.