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Speaker 1: It's a big day for Fonterra shareholders of course, four

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Speaker 1: point two billion dollar decision, the sale of the consumer

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Speaker 1: armed to Lactales or like Talis. John Stephenson, as the

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Speaker 1: Vonterra Cooperative Council chairm as with us, John morning, Good morning,

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Speaker 1: Mike result aside. Has this been exciting for the farming

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Speaker 1: community or not really.

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Speaker 2: Well, certainly it's one of the biggest decisions Fonterra shareholders

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Speaker 2: will make. It's been an eighteen month process, so there's

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Speaker 2: there's no doubt there's been really strong engagement from our

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Speaker 2: farmers in real interest and what it means for us

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Speaker 2: as supplies of milks.

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Speaker 1: How much is it just about the chair I'm getting

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Speaker 1: four hundred thousand dollars yes or no? And how much

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Speaker 1: of it's about the bigger picture of the long term deals,

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Speaker 1: what it means et cetera.

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Speaker 2: Well, farmer's certainly done their true diligence on it, myke.

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Speaker 2: I mean it's important to bear in mind this is

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Speaker 2: our wildlihoods will be supplying milk well after any capital

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Speaker 2: return if the votes successful. So we've we've encouraged farmers

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Speaker 2: to look through the capital return. They've they've engaged in

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Speaker 2: that they've got a lot of confidence from not just

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Speaker 2: what they've heard from Fonterra, but all so we commissioned

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Speaker 2: an independent report on their behalf which reinforced what Fonterra

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Speaker 2: has been telling.

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Speaker 1: Farmers as the ten year bit your supply for ten years.

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Speaker 1: Has that been an issue or not.

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Speaker 2: It's certainly been a hot topic a discussion between farmers

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Speaker 2: and Fonterra. And certainly what Fontira have told us and

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Speaker 2: we've had independently tested, is that he look, you know,

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Speaker 2: this partnership is really important. I think Fonterira will do

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Speaker 2: everything they can to make it work. It's really important

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Speaker 2: to make it work. But you know, farmers have been

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Speaker 2: interested in the water scenario, and you know, if you

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Speaker 2: look at some of the investments Fonterra is making around

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Speaker 2: advanced proteins and butter and u HT in our regions,

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Speaker 2: that worst case scenario, Fonterra can still carry on.

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Speaker 1: If it comes to that theoretical question, how much of

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Speaker 1: about today's decision or how much about today's decision is

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Speaker 1: because Miles and co run this place properly as opposed

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Speaker 1: to what Fontira was once upon a time, And if

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Speaker 1: they told you the same story, would you feel the same.

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Speaker 2: There's no out that there's runs on the board from Miles,

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Speaker 2: his management team and the board. Mike. Farmers have a

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Speaker 2: lot of confidence in that. But also in the back

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Speaker 2: of our minds, Mike wasn't too long ago that Fonterra

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Speaker 2: was an entirely different story. So I can certainly attest

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Speaker 2: that the farmer meetings is still a healthy degree of

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Speaker 2: skepticism in questioning when Fonterra brings something like this in

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Speaker 2: front of farmers.

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Speaker 1: And your scenes say it goes ahead and the four

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Speaker 1: point two billion comes to their country, how much of

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Speaker 1: it's going straight to the bank to retire the overdrive

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Speaker 1: versus how much is getting spent in the community.

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Speaker 2: Farmers have repaid a lot of debt over the last

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Speaker 2: year or two. Certainly, what I'm hearing from farmers is

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Speaker 2: that they'd like to do a bit of that. But

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Speaker 2: there's no doubt that this will, if successful, will be

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Speaker 2: a real injection into the regional economies and farmers talking

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Speaker 2: about what plant they can replace, what they can invest in.

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Speaker 2: But also given the weather in the last couple of days,

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Speaker 2: they have already been plenty of generators bought.

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Speaker 1: Exactly good on your Jongo Well Today, John Stevenson, the

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Speaker 1: Fonterra Cooperative Council cheerwoo us this morning teen thirty I

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Speaker 1: think is the meeting. We'll know by early afternoon.

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