Fonterra would quickly succumb to foreign ownership if the world’s biggest dairy exporter went public, according to Federated Farmers’ new dairy spokesman Willy Leferink.
The lobby group made the comments following suggestions the proposed Trading Among Farmers scheme, which would see outside investors allowed to invest in a Fonterra-related fund, is a threat to farmer control of the cooperative.
The scheme to allow farmers to trade Fonterra shares among themselves missed the cut for inclusion in legislation this side of the election.
“If Fonterra was publicly listed, within a decade it would go down the same path trod by Nufarm and Lion Nathan,” Leferink said in an op-ed piece for Ideolog magazine.
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