Download draft - Horizon Poll

27 March 2012
SPEECH FROM THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE NEW
ZEALAND COOPERATIVES ASSOCIATION
MR BLUE READ TO THE NEW ZEALAND LAUNCH OF
THE UNITED NATIONS 2012 YEAR OF COOPERATIVES
Welcome everybody to this celebration to mark the
New Zealand launch of the United Nations
International Year of Cooperatives.
My name is Blue Read and I am the Chair of the New
Zealand Cooperatives Association.
The International Year of Cooperatives is a chance to
highlight and promote the global successes of
cooperatives, their economic importance, and their
contribution to the wealth of New Zealand.
It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge our host
tonight, the Minister of Commerce Hon Craig Foss, and
to welcome His Excellency Mr Arie Van Der Wiel, the
New Zealand Ambassador of the Kingdom of The
Netherlands, Members of Parliament, members of the
Cooperatives Association and distinguished guests.
The President of the International Cooperative Alliance
Dame Pauline Green, will join us a little later via video.
Dame Pauline is a former Member of the European
Parliament and is based in Europe.
Dame Pauline will mention the importance of
cooperatives to the economic well-being of the world
and that the world’s 300 largest cooperatives generate
turnover of almost 2 Trillion NZ dollars.
Our very own Fonterra is one of the Global 300
included in those statistics, and so too is the Dutch
bank, Rabobank, which is represented here tonight by
its Global Chairman, Mr Piet Moerland, who will talk to
us shortly about their involvement with the
International Year of Cooperatives.
Here in New Zealand, cooperatives have been around
since 1871, when eight dairy farmers joined forces,
investing one pound each to start their own cheese
factory in Otago.
Today, the New Zealand Cooperatives Association has
more than 50 members; some are very big businesses
by New Zealand, and by international standards.
Foremost among them is Fonterra Cooperative Group,
New Zealand’s only true multinational enterprise, and
the world’s largest exporter of dairy products.
Foodstuffs, with its PAK’nSAVE and New World brands,
and the farmer-owned meat processing companies
Alliance Group and Silver Fern Farms, are also large
business operations that are ranked among the world’s
300 largest cooperatives.
Others are quite small and can be found in a wide
variety of sectors, such as credit unions, banking,
insurance, retailing, taxi companies and even vehicle
repair shops.
The scale and diversity of New Zealand’s cooperative
sector means that they play a key role in the daily lives
of a significant number New Zealanders.
Cooperatives also make a strong contribution to the
achievement of the Government’s economic
objectives.
Compared to other countries, cooperatives and
mutuals are a relatively large part of the New Zealand
economy – almost 10 per cent of the country’s top 200
businesses, as represented by turnover.
New Zealanders have embraced the cooperative model
where members own and control their own businesses.
The cooperative ethos suits the New Zealand psyche in
many ways.
The notion of self-help, cooperating, and sharing the
profits is particularly strong in our rural areas, where
many of our farmers and townsfolk belong to
sometimes four or five different cooperatives.
Recently our Association commissioned a Horizon
Research survey of more than 1,000 people. Among
the detail that was reinforced is the level of
importance that New Zealanders place on the business
values of honesty, integrity and ethical standards,
which are core pillars of the cooperative structure.
It will come as no surprise that New Zealanders
overwhelmingly want to do business with companies
that display these attributes.
When asked how our cooperative businesses
performed against these values, not only do we find
that cooperatives are very well considered but we also
find that the reputational damage that has been
caused by finance company failures becomes very
apparent.
More than 71 percent of New Zealanders either have
less trust or totally distrust this part of the financial
industry.
The impact of the finance company collapses has also
flowed through to the general investment confidence.
Fifty per cent of New Zealanders rated themselves as
either “uncomfortable” or “very uncomfortable” about
investing in publicly listed companies on the New
Zealand share market at the moment.
Cooperatives typically put long term gain and business
stability ahead of short term profits.
This has helped cooperatives come through difficult
financial times relatively unscathed, compared to many
investor-driven companies. But the word is not getting
out there.
Cooperatives have traditionally shied away from profile
raising.
Cooperatives often don’t perceive the need to
communicate their successes any wider than their own
membership, meaning the wider community remains
uninformed.
We are able to back this up with more results from the
Horizon Survey.
Over 70 per cent think there is insufficient awareness
about the difference between cooperatives and
investor-owned companies, and 60 per cent would like
to see universities, polytechnics, and our accounting
and legal associations offering courses on
cooperatives.
Consumers and producers are looking for entities they
can trust, and where they can be confident of being
treated well.
The UN International Year of Cooperatives is a unique
opportunity to raise awareness of the cooperative
business model, and this function tonight joins New
Zealand with many people in many nations around the
world who are also celebrating cooperative and mutual
enterprise.
For us, it’s an opportunity to work with government
and professional groups to facilitate an environment
which supports the cooperative and mutual way of
doing business in New Zealand.
To mark the celebration, the Government has funded a
statistical project which has provided figures on the
contribution made by cooperatives to New Zealand
GDP and to employment.
From this research we see that 3 per cent of GDP
comes from the cooperative sector.
Our own research indicates the top 40 New Zealand
cooperatives had a combined turnover of more than
$39 billion in the 2010/2011 financial year; an increase
of over 10 per cent over the previous year.
This increase comes at a time when economies around
the world have been shrinking.
And the top 40 New Zealand cooperatives employ
around 50,000 people.
By way of comparison, in the United Kingdom, long
considered the home of cooperative enterprise, there
are 10 times the number of cooperatives, employing
five times the staff of their New Zealand counterparts.
But the combined turnover of the UK cooperatives is
not even double the combined revenues generated in
this country.
And a statistic I particularly like as a dairy farmer is
that, in farming in the UK, there are 446 cooperatives
with a turnover of $NZ8.5 billion. Compare this with
Dairy coops in New Zealand, which alone generated
revenue of over $20 billion.
While New Zealanders are pragmatic and businessfocussed in the way we embrace cooperatives, less
developed countries use the same “self-help”
philosophy as a model to introduce self-sustaining food
and agricultural programmes to help raise living
standards for the poor.
There are some wonderful examples in developing
countries where the cooperative model has proven to
be enormously successful in achieving positive
economic and social development.
The Cooperative model is a model that can and does
suit financial and social objectives around the world.
It’s a model I am very proud to be part of and a model
that is deserving of the recognition that the United
Nations International Year of Cooperatives confers
upon it.
Now, it gives me great pleasure to introduce the
chairman of the world’s largest agricultural bank, Mr
Piet Moerland, who will pick up on the global picture to
talk about Rabobank’s achievements locally and
internationally.
More than 71 per cent of New Zealanders either have
less trust or totally distrust this part of the financial
industry.
The impact of the finance company collapses has also
flowed through to the general investment confidence.
Fifty per cent of New Zealanders rated themselves as
either “uncomfortable” or “very uncomfortable” about
investing in publicly listed companies on the New
Zealand share market at the moment.