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Fonterra's Board will be looking for a clear mandate from the cooperative's 10,500 dairy farmers when they vote on Trading Among Farmers (TAF) on June 25, says chairman Henry van der Heyden.
While the TAF resolution at the special shareholder meeting is an ordinary resolution that requires a 50% plus majority to be passed, he says the board won't be proceeding unless it has a much stronger mandate than that.
"I want a mandate that will unify the cooperative around this proposed evolution in our capital structure," he says. "This is the final vote in a long process. Shareholders have given us strong support in the earlier stages and that is what the board is looking for this time.
"TAF offers a means of sustainably protecting 100% farmer control and ownership into the future and reducing risk to our cooperative, so we're looking for a mandate that enables the board to continue to work towards protecting and strengthening Fonterra.
"We have listened to our farmer shareholders and their key concerns rest on two fundamental points: Preserving 100% control and ownership and the integrity of the Farmgate Milk Price.
"Accordingly, we have proposed a range of resolutions for farmer shareholders to vote on that will tighten limits on the size of the Fonterra shareholders fund, which is fundamental to 100% farmer control and ownership, and preserve the integrity of the
Farmgate Milk Price.
"These resolutions would require constitutional change and would therefore involve a 75% vote."
Dairy farmers supplying Fonterra throughout the country will receive shareholder Special Meeting voter packs in the next few days providing further detail on how it's proposed TAF will operate.
The material distributed to farmers included:
• The Notice of Special Meeting of Shareholders, including proposed resolutions,
• A copy of the Blueprint, the masterplan document for Trading Among Farmers,
• A Due Diligence Report provided to the Board for its May, 2012 meeting; and
• A Trading Among Farmers Summary Sheet
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