GlobalCo gamble a safe bet

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON

Farmers gamble million-dollar enterprises on such improbables as rain and sunshine arriving in appropriate quantities and in a timely manner.

No wonder, then, that most of the dairy farmers have gambled on the Global Dairy Company.

By the standards of people who bet on grass growing and stock living long enough to give a return, GlobalCo is a safe bet.

Its possibilities of success are a great unknown, but at least the swag of people who put their names to the many grand promises can be bailed up in the pub and looked in the eye.

As they return to their own businesses, the best thing GlobalCo shareholders can do is put the documented commitments in a safe place, ready to be whipped out for comparison and challenge when the new company begins reporting its progress - or not.

Critics contend farmers were manipulated by a slick public relations effort.

Certainly PR hacks are as thick on the dairy industry as flies on a Merino's backside, but farmers are legend for demanding information - and then complaining that they are being asked to digest too much.

But those lamenting the lack of alternative to the GlobalCo plan should examine their own woeful communication efforts.

This idea has been percolating for six years - plenty of time to mount a coherent counter-attack.

Yet many of the so-called industry leaders who claimed doubts refused to stand up and be counted. It was left largely to one-time Government official Tony Baldwin, and gutsy former Dairy Group director Hilary Webber to make a very late run.

It is regrettable that other options were not better debated by farmers and New Zealanders in general, instead of discussion being confined mostly to the one plan. At the least, broader deliberations would have meant greater confidence in the final decision.

Now, only outstanding success by GlobalCo will remove the suspicion that people have been hoodwinked by self-serving executives and power hungry industry politicians.

If for any reason - and there are many in a business dependent on international dairy trade - GlobalCo falls short of its expectations, the inevitable blame-fest will obscure the real explanation for the stumble.

The opportunities and earnings lost in the drawn-out process to create GlobalCo are also regrettable. But that's like crying in case the milk is spilt.

Of more concern is the high casualty rate of industry personnel, both staff and farmer leaders, driven off by frustration or dumped by politics in the limbo that has been the dairy sector over the past six years.

But the industry has finally got there. Just the relatively low hurdle of already sanctioned legislation remains to be cleared.

It is time to put regrets and recriminations away. GlobalCo is here to stay.

The humble dairy farmer has built an enterprise the envy of other agribusiness.

The present edifice is widely respected.

For all our sakes, may its successor know smooth seas and the wind always in its sails.

Anchors aweigh!