By PHILIPPA STEVENSON agriculture editor
Fonterra has made a bad start to the new milk season by not collecting milk from the chairman of its shareholders council, Tony O'Boyle, and up to 1300 other suppliers.
The first milk of the season is pouring into vats around the country, but yesterday O'Boyle said collection problems were mounting.
"Desperate shareholders are ringing their councillors demanding action," he said.
O'Boyle suspects up to 10 per cent of the giant co-op's 13,030 suppliers could be having problems.
"But it's only a suspicion. That's the trouble, it's hard to get a straight answer," he said.
"The real concern is the sheer diversity of the problems and the impact they are having on farmers."
He knows one issue personally - the first pick-up from his Rotorua farm on Wednesday did not happen.
Because cows were just starting to be milked, flows were light and his refrigerated vat could hold the milk until yesterday. But that could not continue as flows increased.
"It's perishable and it's got to go somewhere along the supply chain every day of the week," O'Boyle said.
As well as milk tankers not turning up, some tankers called one day but not the next, notifications of milk quality were slow, and collection dockets were illegible, or not left.
The Business Herald reported on Tuesday of growing farmer dissatisfaction with the computerised collection system, part of a new $3 million milk management and shareholder services system called Aspire and built by Jade.
"It's an absolute shambles," said one user.
The level of service to a significant portion of shareholders was unacceptable, said O'Boyle.
He went public with his concerns yesterday after approaches to the company did not produce results.
Assurances that the problems would be tackled had been given by the shareholder services division, and at last week's special meeting by chairman John Roadley and chief executive Craig Norgate.
"We've given them a chance," O'Boyle said.
Fonterra deputy chief executive Chris Moller said yesterday problems inevitably occurred at the beginning of a new season.
The company was "intent on lifting our level of service to our farmer shareholders, to treat them as customers and get the problems behind us.
"As at today, we have 337 unresolved complaints, of which 111 are related to milk collection. We are taking a number of actions to address the concerns raised around our contact centre, the daily return slip and milk collection."
Fonterra, formed by a merger of two co-ops last year, said it was using "advanced scheduling systems" that significantly reduced the distance tankers travelled.
But it was having setup problems and had reverted to a manual system in some instances.
Its call centre had been overrun with calls, but the number of staff and phone lines had been increased.
It hoped problems with pick-up dockets would be overcome with modifications to the system's software, and a pack explaining the new system to shareholders was being prepared.
O'Boyle met shareholder services general manager Ray Parker at his Auckland office yesterday.
"You can imagine the jaws dropping around here when the chairman of the shareholders council's milk didn't get picked up," O'Boyle said.
Parker, former chief executive of Tasman Agriculture and a New Zealand Dairy Group director, was appointed in November.
Fonterra chief financial officer Graham Stuart commented then on the delicacy of the relationship with shareholders.
"In a deregulated environment, the quality of our shareholder services will have a major influence on our ability to retain the loyalty of our shareholders, and so their milk supply and capital."