{"id":9385,"date":"2013-12-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-15T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/mie-pair-elected-to-sff-board-of-directors\/"},"modified":"2013-12-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-12-15T11:00:00","slug":"mie-pair-elected-to-sff-board-of-directors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/news\/mie-pair-elected-to-sff-board-of-directors\/","title":{"rendered":"MIE pair elected to SFF board of directors"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

The results of the election, which closed at 3pm Friday, were:<\/p>\n

Richard Young: 36,155,094<\/p>\n

Dan Jex-Blake: 25,511,166<\/p>\n

David Shaw: 19,435,482<\/p>\n

\u00a0The voter turnout was 26.76% of eligible voters, up from 16.70% in the previous election in 2010.<\/p>\n

Chairman-elect Rob Hewett said the increase in voter turnout reflecte the understanding of a need for reform across the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are acutely aware of the need to keep up momentum for reform and we saw the increased farmer turnout at this election as a key indicator of farmers\u2019 desire to support the co-operative,\u201d Hewett said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Meat Industry Excellence group members\u2019 election platform was well aligned to the Silver Fern Farms board\u2019s own vision, in particular their call for farmers to support co-operatives and farmer ownership, so we take great heart in that farmers have voted for such a movement and we look forward to increased farmer support at an operational level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to officially welcoming Richard and Dan on to the board. We have been progressing options for industry change over the past 18 months and their farmer support base will be invaluable as we continue to look at ways for farmer ownership to drive change and improve farmer control of the sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this election has shown farmers want change, we can\u2019t let the momentum fall away. Our board is investigating options for change. \u201cFarmers now need to step up and jointly drive that momentum for change. The next step for farmers is to see increased numbers of farmers exclusively supplying their co-operatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Votes were received from 1351 eligible voters from a total of 5049 eligible voters.<\/p>\n

To become eligible shareholders needed to meet requirements that included supplying a minimum level of stock for processing over the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

Young said he felt encouraged and vindicated to be elected to the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is gratifying to see the support from the farmers but the hard work starts now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The result showed MIE\u2019s push for change was supported, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message is coming through loud and clear to both Alliance and Silver Fern Farms through a good voter turnout that we have a mandate for change.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was encouraged by Hewett\u2019s comments about the need to keep up momentum for reform.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day the processing sector has shown it is not delivering,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n

The next step was to get around the board table and start making calculations, he said.<\/p>\n

Related story: http:\/\/agrihq.co.nz\/article\/mies-morrison-on-alliance-board?p=7<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Farmer shareholders have elected Meat Industry Excellence (MIE) group members Dan Jex-Blake, of Gisborne, and Richard Young, of Gore, to the Silver Fern Farms\u2019 board of directors.\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t