MONEY earned by farmers and the wider rural sector will help underpin New Zealand’s economic resilience as it navigates the challenges ahead, new Ballance Agri-Nutrients chairman Duncan Coull, an Otorohanga dairy farmer, says.
“And Ballance plays a role in continuing to support our wider industries.”
Further out he sees Ballance playing a critical role in using science to advocate for farmers when it comes to shaping environmental regulations.
Ballance has invested heavily over the past few years to develop the farmer management decision-support tools MyBallance and MitAgator.
Taking that active approach enables farmers to prepare for any pending legislation, he says.
“We have an active role to play there and my personal view is that if we think about co-operative ownership in the primary sector there’s a lot of commonality in terms of the ownership model and where possible, collaborate where we can to support our farmers.”
Countering that unified approach are the environmental lobbyists pushing for caps or outright bans of on farm fertiliser use.
Coull says there has been a growing awareness among farmers of the need to farm more sustainably.
“Let’s be frank, we need to feed our soil and plants to feed our growing populations around the world. I think if we were to take an extreme view there would be dire consequences for our population and the world.
“Right now, with the unfortunate situation with covid-19, as proud as I am to be contributing to the wellbeing of our communities and our economy I think every New Zealander would be thankful for our farmers right now.”
Ballance was fortunate to be classed as an essential service and to play a role in keeping rural NZ productive.
The co-operative is critically aware of that responsibility and has had to adapt to supply farmers with its products while keeping its staff and farmers healthy, he says.
The $50 million hydrogen project at Kapuni will further lift the co-operative’s push to be more environmentally sustainable. It will supply its urea plant with electricity, reducing its footprint and powering the plant’s transport fleet.
The project got just under $20m from the Government’s Provincial Growth Fund in March.
“It’s at its early stages but at a very high level I see, conceptually, it fits with Ballance as a manufacturer to ensure that we do our bit in terms of operating in a low-emissions economy,” he says.
His overriding aim as chairman will be to ensure the co-operative’s focus remains relevant to the 18,500 farmer-shareholders and deliver services that let them keep operating productively.
“It doesn’t need to be a lot more complicated than that.
“If we’re relevant to our shareholders then I think we have a right and a directive to operate.
“To be relevant to your customer and shareholder base you have to add value and you need to understand their challenges, opportunities and operating environment. It’s really important that you never lose focus on that.”
He will take the position in September when outgoing chairman David Peacocke steps down following the annual meeting.
It’s been a meteoric rise for Coull, who has been on the board since 2018 and was on the Fonterra Shareholders’ Council for eight years, including three as chairman before stepping down from that role last year.
“I’m humbled to be given the opportunity and that the board saw fit to appoint me as the incoming chair,” he says.
Peacocke had been a Ballance director since 2005 and was elected chairman in 2013.
He epitomises what is required to chair the board of a large company, Coull says.
“It’s the ability to encourage open discussion among the board and help them to reach a consensus view and he does that very well.”
Coull said Peacocke was a great advocate for supporting management change at the co-operative during his tenure as a director and chairman.
“It’s incredible some of the tools and initiatives that have been put in place over that period. The Ballance business, at its core, will always be ensuring that we deliver high-quality, cost-effective nutrients to our farmers but more and more we need to ensure that we enable through that farmers’ ability to do that.”
Peacocke advocated for initiatives that helped farmers do just that, he said.
Coull says his experience chairing Fonterra’s Shareholders’ Council helped grow his leadership capabilities. He believes the chairman’s job is to facilitate discussion around the board and extract the best of the talent there.
