Rod Oram: Monaghan a 'loyal but limited' choice for Fonterra

Business journalist Rod Oram attended the Red Meat Sector Conference in Napier yesterday where he noticed how the very successful Zespri is now infiltrating the meat and dairy industries.

Oram spoke to The Country's Jamie Mackay, saying he has noticed a migration of "Zespri people," to other sectors where they have used their insights, such as CEO of Silver Fern Farms Simon Limmer.

Some have criticised John Monaghan's appointment as Fonterra's new chairman as maintaining the status-quo.

Oram disagrees that Monaghan will be "more of the same," to the co-operative and predicts his leadership will not stack-up to his predecessors Sir Henry van der Heyden and John Wilson.

"I don't mean this unkindly about John [Monaghan] but his reputation is that he's a very loyal but limited follower in the footsteps of Sir Henry van der Heyden and John Wilson. So [he has a] very similar background but with less of the wider commercial experience that Henry and John had."

Also in today's interview: Rod Oram looks at other potential candidates for Fonterra's chairman role.