Silver Fern Farms director candidate Fiona Hancox has called on farmers to ''fight for control'' of their co-operative.
Yesterday, Mrs Hancox, who is challenging incumbent Herstall Ulrich in the upcoming farmer director elections, said she would work to ensure the company's co-operative status was not challenged by foreign ownership.
In this week's New Zealand Farmers Weekly, Silver Fern Farms' new chief executive, Dean Hamilton, said the company wanted shareholders to provide all the equity boost it needed and to keep it as a co-operative business, but he accepted that view was probably unrealistic.
It was reported that international investment bank Goldman Sachs had been appointed to investigate all funding options in New Zealand and overseas, aiming to raise about $100 million in new equity.
In October, chairman Rob Hewett said the timing was right for the company to look at capital structure options.
Any new capital would allow it to accelerate the reduction of bank debt and the associated impact of debt-servicing, which currently cost the business $35 million a year.
''At the end of the day, if shareholders don't stump up with enough capital, we need to secure a New Zealand Inc approach rather than foreign ownership,'' Mrs Hancox said.
A lot depended on Alliance Group's annual meeting in Gore on Friday when the company's farmer director election results were announced, she said.
Incumbents John Lindsay and Dawn Sangster were being challenged by Mandy Bell and Russell Drummond, who have both been backed by Meat Industry Excellence.
If Alliance Group farmers voted for change this week, there was time for Silver Fern Farms and Alliance Group directors to come together and talk about a collaborative approach to take the industry forward, Mrs Hancox said.
The solution was a new farmer-owned co-operative with a new identity which could attract 70%-80% of supply.
She believed it was the ''last chance'' for farmers to continue to have control of the industry.
''If we don't do this, foreign investment will,'' she said.
