Make the right decision, Peters urges Fonterra farmers
New Zealand First leader and Foreign Minister Winston Peters is ratcheting up pressure on Fonterra farmers as they vote on divesting the co-operative’s consumer and related businesses.
He made the comment while opening the co-op’s annual general meeting today at its Whareroa plant in Hawera.
“The co-op model first arrived in Taranaki back in 1890s and became the mainstay of the region’s dairy industry,” he says.
Taranaki has always been at the forefront of dairy innovation; the rotary cowshed was invented in the region.
New Zealand’s first dairy export is credited to a Taranaki – the first shipment of butter was sent to the UK from here.
Wilson says the country now exports on average $14 billion of dairy products every year.
