Farmers refusing to be co-operative PrintIncrease Text SizeDecrease Text Size05 Nov, 2013 09:53 AMMICK KEOGH OPINION: CURRENT debates about the potential takeover of Warrnambool Cheese and Butter (WCB) and Graincorp highlight one of the interesting features of Australian agriculture, which is the limited presence of farmer-owned cooperatives in the agribusiness environment in Australia compared to almost any overseas location. While WCB and Graincorp are now both listed companies, they both have their origins as either cooperatives or grower-controlled entities, and in both cases farmers have opted to relinquish control and have cashed their shares, and are now becoming concerned about the consequences. Interestingly, in the WCB case the potential buyers (in addition to the Canadian Saputo) are reported to be Bega Cheese (a former dairy cooperative that is now a listed company), Murray Goulburn (one of the biggest cooperatives in the Australian agribusiness landscape), and Fonterra, which has its origins as a statutory marketing board in New Zealand that now has a company structure, but which New Zealand Dairy farmers still control through their shares. Looking around Australian agriculture, the remaining major cooperatives are CBH, the Western Australian grain handler and marketer, Murray Goulburn Cooperative, the Victorian dairy cooperative, Norco, the northern NSW dairy and meat processor and the Ricegrowers Cooperative, the owner of Sunrice. In all cases except perhaps Norco, the organisations are struggling with questions of ownership and structure, and appear likely to move to different ownership structures that bring in non-grower shareholders. There are also smaller cooperatives in the sugar (for example the NSW Sugar Milling Cooperative) and horticulture industries (Batlow apples), but compared to the number of cooperatives in Australia twenty year ago the number has shrunk dramatically.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 11:50:10 +0000
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