Organic dairy co-op files for liquidation
A co-operative touted as New Zealand's only 100% farmer-owned organic milk producer has gone bust.
This year's KPMG Agribusiness Agenda fires a timely shot over the bows of the NZ primary sector.
The key word is "complacency", a word somewhat akin to "she'll be right".
The report makes it clear that the world, like our sevens rugby team, has caught up with us and in some cases has overtaken us.
We have often joked and laughed about Irish and French farmers living the life of Riley on EU subsidies while we perform better. Now the joke's on us, as report author Ian Proudfoot points out: "Gallic passion has come into play and they -- not us -- are connecting more effectively with customers".
The report rightly challenges the governance of our primary industry organisations, with board members coming on via the old boy or girl networks. Proudfoot's model of a future thinking, highly skilled board to run organisations and a representative body to have oversight is good.
However, the latter needs to be more pitbull terrier than lapdog which is, sadly, the case of the Fonterra Shareholders' Council: good idea, dreadful result.
Representative scrutiny has to be seriously independent and not there to curry favour. Governance in some farmer organisations is pretty average and the boundary between governance and management is often blurred or overstepped.
The report highlights what Landcorp is doing and shows the SOE is a role model for how companies should act in turbulent, disruptive times and focus on adding value.
Making depressing reading is the dumbness of the bureaucracy in its management of science funding. It's a longstanding issue which needs urgent ministerial intervention.
Scientists, and the primary sector as a whole, have every reason to feel aggrieved at the overheads being stolen from good science money because of convoluted bureaucratic bidding processes.
KPMG and Ian Proudfoot, in particular, are to be congratulated for showing real leadership and insight into the future NZ is facing; they tell it as it is.
If primary sector organisations, and New Zealanders as a whole, don't buy into what KPMG is saying, we can only blame ourselves for any resulting mess.
The country’s 4200 commercial fruit and vegetable growers will vote from May 14 on a new HortNZ levy.
Meat processor Alliance Group is asking farmer shareholders to inject more capital in order to remain a 100% co-operative.
A vet is calling for all animals to be vaccinated against a new strain of leptospirosis (lepto) discovered on New Zealand dairy farms in recent years.
Dairy
Rural banker Rabobank is partnering with Food Rescue Kitchen on a new TV series which airs this weekend that aims to shine a light on the real and growing issues of food waste, food poverty and social isolation in New Zealand.
Telco infrastructure provider Chorus says that it believes all Kiwis – particularly those in the rural areas – need access to high-speed, reliable broadband.
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