Fonterra shareholders watch performance after sale
Fonterra shareholders say they will be keeping an eye on their co-operative's performance after the sale of its consumer businesses.
Fonterra’s rural service subsidiary, Farm Source says farmer shareholders are adapting well to its new trading model under COVID-19 restrictions.
Thanks to COVID-19, Farm Source has closed all its stores: orders are placed online or over the phone.
Farmers can either collect their purchases outside the store or are dropped off at “zero-contact” collection point on-farm.
Farm Source head Richard Allen says the service has been well adopted by farmers across the country.
“Sales traffic was high in the first few days, which was not unexpected. Traffic has now reduced to more normal levels and aligned to more seasonal patterns.”
“Our phone-based service centre and online sales channel have come into their own: staff and farmers have adopted and respected this way of operating in a short period of time.”
Allen, who also looks after milk collection, says the co-op isn’t experiencing disruption or significant drop in production at this stage.
“Agriculture essential and prioritised in the lock-down for business continuity: farmers continuing to work hard on-farm and we are continuing to collect and process their milk.”
Fears of a serious early drought in Hawke’s Bay have been allayed – for the moment at least.
There was much theatre in the Beehive before the Government's new Resource Management Act (RMA) reform bills were introduced into Parliament last week.
The government has unveiled yet another move which it claims will unlock the potential of the country’s cities and region.
The government is hailing the news that food and fibre exports are predicted to reach a record $62 billion in the next year.
The final Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction has delivered bad news for dairy farmers.
One person intimately involved in the new legislation to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA) is the outgoing chief executive of the Ministry for the Environment, James Palmer, who's also worked in local government.