Dairy behemoth Fonterra’s chief financial officer Graham Stuart encountered much frustration this week, during the first of a series of nationwide meetings called to discuss the group’s fiscal accounts with its farmer shareholders.


Dairy farmers in Cambridge demanded more accountability over Fonterra’s NZ$64m (US$30m) corporate budget.


Local farmer Gary Reymer told stuff.co.nz that the average farmer, for whom “this NZ$64m amounts to an NZ$4500 income drop at the end of the season”, was finding it difficult to accept Fonterra’s explanation that corporate overspending is largely down to first year startup costs.


Meanwhile, Cambridge farmer John Fisher said that there was a culture of excess making farmers angry: “Some executives don’t live in Auckland and are being flown in to Fonterra’s head offices in Auckland from various parts of the country to go to work.”


The meetings will be held in the run up to Fonterra’s annual meeting next Thursday.

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