Over the past few days since Westland Milk Products’ shareholders voted to sell to Yili, China’s largest dairy processor, some commentators have been speculating about the cooperative business model and whether it was right for our dairy industry and agri-producer sector. Some have even predicted the sale of Fonterra to overseas buyers. I would like to provide some balance to this discussion.

The theme of this year’s International Day of Co-operatives (6 July 2019) is COOPS 4 DECENT WORK. How are co-operatives responding to the world of work challenges? The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) is shouting out the message that co-ops are people-centred enterprises characterised by democratic control that prioritise human development and social justice within the workplace.

NZ’s housing crisis could be alleviated by the formation of housing co-operatives which have proven successful overseas but are strangely absent here in New Zealand, writes Cooperative Business NZ CEO Craig Presland.

Over one billion people worldwide have no access to electricity while less than 10% of energy usage globally is being generated from renewable sources. Both figures are highly alarming, writes Cooperative Business NZ CEO, Craig Presland. Despite the quest globally to develop and utilize renewable energy, we still have almost 90% generated by the burning of fossil fuels (33% by oil, 30% by coal and 24% by natural gas).

In recent weeks I have been reading various debates in the media about the cooperative business model and, in particular, capital raising. This is essentially about the inherent tension between investment in operations and market development on the one hand and competitive payments to the shareholder suppliers on the other. A lot of the debate seems to involve our dairy industry.