Directors Donna Smit, Andy Macfarlane returned to Fonterra board

Fonterra chairman John Monaghan. Photo / NZ Herald.

Fonterra directors Donna Smit and Andy Macfarlane have been returned to the co-op's board after retiring by rotation.

Shareholders Scott Montgomerie and Ellen Bartlett were elected unopposed to the directors' remuneration committee and Ian Brown was elected unopposed as the Fonterra farmer custodian trustee, Fonterra said.

All successful candidates will take office at the close of Fonterra's annual meeting in Invercargill on Thursday.

Fonterra has said it would decide on a succession plan for chairmanship of the co-operative next year.

The current chairman, John Monaghan, is due to retire as a director at the 2020 annual meeting.

This week's annual meeting will follow a net loss of $605 million loss for the July year, on asset writedowns of $826m.

That followed the previous year's loss of $196m and has sparked a string of asset sales and a significant change in direction for the dairy giant.

The writedowns included a $203m impairment of its China Farms investment and $237m on its New Zealand food service business.

Last month, Fonterra appointed the current chief executive of Mercury Energy, Fraser Whineray, to its management team in the newly-created role of chief operating officer.

He starts early next year.

Fonterra's NZX-traded units last traded at $4.08 after hitting a record low in August of $3.18.