Jamie Mackay: The Country host on farmers probing Fonterra's decisions at AGM

Farmers at this morning's Fonterra AGM took the opportunity to probe the company around their reasons to sell off the company's consumer brands. 

Fonterra is looking to sell key brands such as Anchor and Mainland - and the farmers have expressed disappointment with this choice.

The Country's Jamie Mackay explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Evan with me right now. Is Jamie mckaye, Host of

(00:02):
the Country. Hey, Jamie good head, Hey, are you going
to the christ JMP show?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Are you? Yes? I am. I'm about to board a
plane from Dunedin and if I get the call, I'll
have to hang up on you quickly. But I'm not
due to board till six thirty, so I should be safe.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Ye mate, You're not boarding at six thirty, don't worry
about it.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah. Hey, well I could be joining sixty thousand others
at the christ Church amp Show this year. They're calling
it that it used to be called. It was the
Artist formerly known as the New Zealand Agricultural Show, which
is a week down on the one hundred thousand they
normally get. It is the biggest amp show in the country,
or it was until it was canceled at the beginning

(00:43):
of this year, and to be fair, a local event
hire company and Sir David Carter got together and they
revived it. So good on them. A bit of a
cold and damp start to the show today, only hired
at sixteen tomorrow they're expecting eighteen which will be better
and the last day of the show for the public
on Saturday, only twelve decrees and of course a big

(01:04):
day at Rickerdon on Saturday as well free for all
at Addington tomorrow, so it's all on. Really looking forward
to it. The sharing, the wood shopping and the equestrian
get under way tomorrow. It's a public holiday in at
christ Church, so looking forward to it.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
The Fonterra AGM today. How did the farmers in the
shareholder and so on feel about the consumer brands being
sold off?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well? I think there was some grumblings, but not too many.
Peter McBride, who's a very smart man, Myles Hurrell, gets
a lot of the credit quite rightly. So as chief
executive he's the front face if you want to Fontira.
Peter McBride's a kind of a reserved sort of guy,
but he's got a very good track record at Zespri

(01:47):
before Fonterra and between the two of them they've really
turned the good ship Fonterra around. And he has fronted
up to the shareholders there and said, look, you can
spend this money better than we can, and look I
don't think there'll be too many rumbles from the Farmers shareholders. Heather,
it's worth about two bucks two Bucks and counting a
share for them. And just remember this, at the beginning

(02:07):
of the year, they're farmer's shares that they've got a
buy to supply the co op. We're trading at two
dollars fifty. I think they were at a low of
two dollars twelve last year. They're up to four dollars
eighty eight today, so they've seen a considerable improvement on
their balance sheet. And if they get another couple of
bucks a share, you know they're starting to cook with gas.

(02:29):
They're in the high sixes. Interestingly, also, Fonterra came out
recently and on Monday I think it was, and obviously
went to nine dollars fifty for a midpolymp at the
futures market, and that only is the future is sitting
now at nine dollars ninety. I see ben Z lifted
theirs up to nine seventy five. Look, Heather, I think

(02:51):
I said this to you the other day. Ten dollars
is on the cards. Now. You talked about Trump trump
and American me up, supposedly New Zealand dollar down, so
all those things are playing in the favor of New
Zealand exporters. Just on that Fonterra AGM today. The only
hiccup I think they were greeted by some Greenpeace protesters

(03:14):
calling for a band on palm Colonel. But when it
comes to protesting, let's face it. Today Heather Greenpeace, which
just bored.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Hey, you've got one minute before you board. Best of luck, Jamie,
Thank you, Jamie McKay, host to the Country.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
For more from Heather Duplassy, Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.