A farmer activist in the continuing row over rationalisation of the dairy industry, Antonie Eggink, of Taranaki, says he is standing for the board of dairy giant Kiwi Dairies.
Mr Eggink said he was standing in a ward election because of concerns about the performance of the company over the past
few years.
He was also concerned about the "antagonistic approach" Kiwi and New Zealand Dairy Group had taken in negotiations on the cornerstone merger of their two companies.
"That's a function of parochialism, politics and power, which is inappropriate in the new millennium.
"Last year I made a strategic decision not to stand for the board, but this year there are not the same conflicts."
Nearly 15 months ago, Mr Eggink called a meeting of 300 farmers at Stratford to urge the two big companies to make progress with the mega-merger.
He is now a spokesman for Farmers for Control (FFC), an organisation set up out of concern about the direction the industry is taking.
Mr Eggink farms a 38ha West Coast Lease property at Ararata, 13km north-east of Hawera, where he milks 130 cows.
As chairman of the West Coast Lessees Association, he led the tractor protest march to Wellington in December 1998.
While he said he was not standing on the FFC ticket, "Farmers for Control's philosophies and mine are totally consistent as far as what I expect from the industry and where it is going."
Mr Eggink, who is a Kiwi supplier, said at the collapse of the mega-merger talks that he believed neither company leader had wanted to create one integrated manufacturing and marketing company ... and that had been Kiwi's plan all along.
"Kiwi is already developing its own separate, integrated structure and has no intention of being part of a mega-cooperative."
The lobby had warned that, if the dairy industry were allowed to fragment into two or more vertically integrated companies, it would spell disaster for farmers.
It was in shareholders' best interests to secure the annual 20c/kg advantage identified in the business plan.
Kiwi chairman John Young has said he is stepping down from the board. The election will be conducted by postal ballot, which closes on May 17.
- NZPA
