After a slow start peak milk flowed this week to create a single day record in NZ.
Prices were described as steady in the fortnightly auction with some commodities falling and some rising.
Fonterra board hopeful proclaimed his case by selling his marketing expertise and opposition to the boards dairy expansion into China.
Are you happy with the performance of Fonterra's added value, and their expansion into dairy farms in China?
Plenty of milk now flowing after a slow start.
Dairy giant Fonterra has set a new record for the most milk processed in a single day, it announced today. Commonly known as the peak day, the record was last Wednesday, when the the co-operative processed 76.8 million litres of milk across its 26 sites. This was up three million litres on the previous record set last year reports The NZ Herald.
Fonterra trade and operations managing director Gary Romano attributed the rise in production to more settled weather across the country. "It was a slow start to the season with wet weather in the Waikato and Taranaki and snow in the South Island. However, this recent spell of fine weather has seen a sharp increase in production on-farm." Rough weather at the start of the season, combined with a recent lift in milk production, meant Fonterra was late in picking up milk from some of its farmers.
And this weeks auction prices.
Dairy commodity prices were little changed at Fonterra's overnight online auction, with the globalDairyTrade trade weighted index showing no movement, while the average winning price edged up to US$3542 ($4816) from US$3506 a fortnight ago.
For anhydrous milk fat, the average price rose 4.5 per cent overnight to US$5394, butter milk powder was down 1.8 per cent to US$3011, skim milk powder fell 1.1 per cent to US$3021, and whole milk powder edged up to US$3495.
New candidate presses hard for election.
A Fonterra board hopeful says there is a ''gaping hole'' in the skills of the dairy giant's director line-up - no experienced brand marketers. Russ Rimmington, a Waikato dairy farmer, former Hamilton mayor and former advertising and marketing agency owner, told a director election roadshow travelling the country this week that the dairy industry had an ''abysmal'' track record in some types of business investments, which demonstrated the absence of marketing skills among directors reports Stuff.
Rimmington, 64, is one of two farmers challenging three incumbent directors on the board of New Zealand's biggest company. The other challenger is Southland farmer Maurice Hardie, 49. The incumbents seeking re-election are chairman Sir Henry van der Heyden, ex-banker Ian Farrelly and former economist and Federated Farmers leader Malcolm Bailey.
1 Comments
Rimmington’s attempt t gain a seat on the board is a clear illustration how Fonterra is controlled by a powerful minority, as if it were still a regional co-operative, and the level of apathy and disengagement from shareholding suppliers.
I am a shareholding supplier, and find the director election process an abomination. It mocks the intelligence of supplying shareholders, and completely undermines the co-operative principles and ethos that was the foundation of a successful industry, which allowed the formation of Fonterra.
It would be nice for an independent and respected journalist to examine the Candidate Assesment Process. The CAP amounts to rigging of the election in favour of incumbent directors. How does such favoritism build the strength of Fonterra (no longer really a co-op as voting is tied to shareholding, therefore does not have the robustness)? A Fonterra shareholders rep, told me that Malcom Bailey said it was to ensure continuity at the board level. Typical political animal that Bailey is, I remember when he was standing for the board, what he wasn’t going to do to shake it out of revere. The Fonterra rep said there’s robust debate around the board table, and that senior management are grilled over their performance. Maybe so, but given the CAP, and past performance, there's a hint of spin here.
The CAP process is designed to generate a complicit board, not when rich in ideas and innovation. A range of opinions on the Fonterra board would not weaken or undermine the company, because no matter how vigorous or confrontational the debate around the board table, they would have the ability to pull together at the end of the day. Also let farmers decide who is worthy. Scrap the CAP, give the power back to the shareholders.
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