Governance at meat co-ops back in spotlight

 Last week, the Silver Fern Farms chairman, one of the farmer-elected directors up for re-election, effectively endorsed another of the three candidates by calling for no change on the board.

“This is entirely inappropriate for a co-operative chairman, especially one up for re-election himself who is one of three candidates in the electoral process,” says McCarthy.

“We saw it during the Alliance elections, and this is further evidence of the need to improve governance standards at our co-ops.”

McCarthy says that farmers are frustrated at the poor levels of transparency and accountability exhibited by their co-ops. Many meat farmers feel cheated by what could be interpreted as a lack of honesty at last year’s co-op company farmer meetings.

“The promises are turning to dust, like our pastures. The $100+ a lamb of last year was an aberration and we’re back to worse than a year ago,” he says

McCarthy says the situation is much worse when one takes into account our currency slide against the $US. With schedules falling again, he believes the co-ops are stretching farmer loyalty to the limit.

“While they were busy telling us how things were looking up, it appears they were planning new year price cuts, and downward revisions of schedules,” says McCarthy.

“On top of climatic challenges, this is putting farmers under real stress.”

McCarthy believes that farmers deserved better in terms of cooperative governance, and needed to exercise their votes carefully.

“The status quo is not delivering.  Shareholders ought not to be being directed by a co-op chairman who is himself in the electoral race.”

“We’re talking about New Zealand’s second biggest export industry, and it’s in serious decline, and a big part of this is due to poor governance at our co-ops.”