By PHILIPPA STEVENSON
A Fonterra shareholders' meeting has unanimously passed a vote of no confidence in deputy chairman Greg Gent and chief executive Craig Norgate as disquiet about illegal dairy exports grows.
Mr Gent was chairman and Mr Norgate chief executive of Kiwi Dairies, the company implicated in the illegal export
"Powdergate" scandal by a web of subsidiary companies.
This week, two senior New Zealand-based Kiwi executives were suspended while investigations continue into the export of at least $39 million of milk protein concentrates.
Private investigator John Hughes a retired police detective, is helping to conduct the Fonterra inquiry.
An Australian director and executive of Kiwi subsidiary Cottee Dairy Products, Ross Cottee, has already been sacked.
The Fonterra shareholders' council said yesterday's vote at a meeting of about 40 South Auckland suppliers was symptomatic of wide unease.
Fonterra has about 14,000 shareholders overall, but the council chairman, John Wilson, said hewould note the feedback.
The gathering at Patumahoe was held to discuss the company's peak notes scheme for suppliers, but discussion turned to illegal exports, said district councillor Lachie Cameron.
"The feeling was that if Norgate and Gent didn't know about it, why not? If they did, why didn't it come out earlier?"
A farmer at the meeting who did not wish to be named said the unanimous motion expressed the mood of the district, not just of those farmers able to attend.
Mr Wilson said he did not expect views about illegal exports to surface from a discussion on peak notes -"It clearly shows the concern about the issue among shareholders."
He said a message about the level of shareholder alarm was earlier passed to Fonterra chairman John Roadley.
