By PHILIPPA STEVENSON
The heat is on dairy farmers to salvage the mega-merger bungled by their company directors or be written into the history books as New Zealand's biggest commercial failure.
The call for grass-roots action was emphasised repeatedly to some of the country's biggest and most influential farm operators at
an international dairy conference in Christchurch yesterday.
Professor Wayne Cartwright of Auckland University's international business school warned around 800 of the country's large herd owners that industry decisions were about to determine whether a New Zealand-owned dairy industry would continue to exist.
"It's about survival," he said. "If the mega co-op does not come about it will be the largest commercial blunder ever made by New Zealanders by far."
Professor Cartwright said suggestions that Kiwi Dairies and New Zealand Dairy Group, who called off their merger talks on Tuesday, could separately compete among rapidly consolidating multi-national companies was "nothing more than wishful thinking."
He told the farmers that it was up to them to make constructive suggestions to their company directors "so the priorities become clear."
Meanwhile, the chairmen of the two companies said they would be consulting shareholders and rejected suggestions that they employ an independent valuer to help determine the worth of their respective companies.
At the conference, Ian Langdon, chairman of the big Dairy Farmers of Australia co-operative, said New Zealand industry leaders needed to stop negotiating and focus on a vision for the future.
Mr Langdon and Dairy Board chief executive Warren Larsen both suggested that not only was a New Zealand mega co-op necessary to compete globally but that transtasman alliances would also be desirable.
Kiwi director and former Dairy Board chief executive Murray Gough said merger talks between Kiwi and NZ Dairy Group had broken down because neither board believed it could get the necessary 75 per cent shareholder support for its position.
He urged farmers to send the boards a clear message.
