Fonterra Farmers Approve Plan to Open Exporter to Equity Markets

Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd.’s farmer shareholders approved measures that open the world’s largest dairy exporter to equity investors for the first time.

Trading Among Farmers, a plan that allows the New Zealand company’s 10,500 members to privately trade shares or sell them into a publicly traded fund, was supported by 66.5 percent of voters, Auckland-based Fonterra said in a statement. Farmers that voted represented 85 percent of the co-operative’s milk solid production, according to the statement.