Elders mum on PGW
Australian rural services company Elders has downplayed media speculation it is raising funds for a buyout of New Zealand’s largest agricultural services company PGG Wrightson (PGW).
Longtime Elders New Zealand managing director Stu Chapman will later this month leave the business he started.
Following the Carr Group’s acquisition last August of Elders New Zealand – recently rebranded as Carrfields – Chapman, once a shareholder in the Elders agribusiness, agreed to continue in the MD role during the sale and management handover.
He will finish at Elders on August 14 but remain a director of Elders Primary Wool, comprising NZ Yarn, Wool Exports NZ and Wool Marketing Enterprises (Just Shorn). He will also remain a director of Elders International NZ Live Export, a joint venture with Elders Australia.
Chapman has spent 21 years with Elders NZ, growing the business into a market leader particularly in livestock and wool.
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.