The annual reports of Dunedin-based Silver Fern Farmers and Invercargill-based Alliance Group, released this week, showed the chairmen and chief executives of both received hefty pay increases from the previous year.
SFF chief executive Keith Cooper received a remuneration package of between $860,001 and $870,000 for the year ended August 31, an increase of about $250,000 on what he received in the previous corresponding period (pcp).
Mr Cooper is paid about $590,000 more than the next highest paid employee of SFF who receives between $270,001 and $280,000.
Notes in the annual report said Mr Cooper's salary had been determined based on advice from an external consultant and had been set at the median of the market for the role.
It contained an at-risk element which was not paid unless certain criteria had been met.
The total paid in the year contained a payment relating to performance at the year ending at August 31, 2008.
SFF chairman Eoin Garden received director's fees of $86,460 in the latest financial year, a 53.6% increase on the $56,300 he received in the pcp.
Alliance chief executive Grant Cuff received remuneration of between $620,000 and $630,000 in the year ended September, up from the $550,000 to $560,000 he received in the pcp.
He is paid about $220,000 more than the next highest paid Alliance employee.
Chairman Owen Poole had a 66.5% increase in directors fees to $106,000 from $63,666 in 2008.
Market commentators told the Otago Daily Times that lamb prices paid to farmers during the year under review reached record levels.
Beef and venison prices were also exceptional.
