Fonterra, Sharesies join to make share trading easier
Fonterra is teaming up with wealth app provider Sharesies to make it easier for its farmer shareholders to trade co-op shares among themselves.
The man who threatened to put 1080 into infant formula has been named as Jeremy Hamish Kerr, 60, of Auckland.
He was creator of a pest-control product and 1080 alternative Feratox. He pleaded guilty in December to two counts of blackmail. Threats were sent to Federated Farmers and Fonterra in November 2014 threatening to poison infant formula if New Zealand did not stop using 1080 by the end of March 2015.
The Crown asserts he was motivated by financial gain, which he denied at a disputed facts hearing started last week in the High Court at Auckland to give the judge greater clarity around his motives. The hearing was the first time his identity was made public.
Kerr claimed he was suffering from poor mental health and "cracked". He said he was triggered by media reports on 1080 and comments by Environment Minister Nick Smith.
Kerr told police royalties totalled $100,000 a year on Feratox and the Crown asserts he stood to gain financially if 1080 was banned. The hearing was adjourned until next month. Kerr could face 14 years behind bars.
Two companies dealing in pest control products, Connovation Ltd and Connovation Research Ltd, issued statements emphasising their companies are not connected to those companies operated by Jeremy Kerr.
Infant Nutrition Council chief executive Jan Carey says it was a highly despicable thing to do.
However, she believes that any smaller infant formula businesses going out of business would be more to do with the Chinese changing to regulations to make it more difficult for contract manufacturing than the 1080 scare.
"The Chinese want supply integrity, they want an integrated system. With the small companies that have gone out of business it is much more likely to be because of the changes in Chinese regulations... than the 1080 threat."
She can't say speak for individual businesses that may have been affected by the 1080 threat, but she does know that brand companies without manufacturing facilities are having trouble surviving.
Divine table grapes that herald the start of a brand-new industry in Hawke’s Bay have been coming off vines in Maraekakaho.
In what appears to be a casualty of the downturn in the agricultural sector, a well-known machinery brand is now in the hands of liquidators and owing creditors $6.6 million.
One of New Zealand’s deepest breeder Jersey herds – known for its enduring connection through cattle with the UK’s longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II – will host its 75th anniversary celebration sale on-farm on April 22.
Rural trader PGG Wrightson has revised its operating earnings guidance, saying trading conditions have deteriorated since the last market update in February.
It's been a bumper season for maize and other supplements in the eastern Bay of Plenty.
Leading farmers from around New Zealand connected to share environmental stories and inspiration and build relationships at the Dairy Environment Leaders (DEL) national forum in Wellington last month.