Norgate hospitable in defeat

Praise is due for PGG Wrightson head Craig Norgate over his handling of the Silver Fern Farm fiasco and their particularly prickly CEO Keith Cooper.

Not only has he survived the failed merger attempt with a relatively small settlement payment of $40 million, he's also managed to retain a working relationship with Cooper and his company.

This is no mean feat when you consider the tough talking Cooper was engaging in, even up until last week on Farmgate on the Country Channel.

Norgate said charitably that there was no question that PGG Wrightson had breached the terms of the contract and all that was to be settled was the amount to be forked over.

However he is still holding hope of integrating the supply chain with SFF and this is interesting because on many levels farmers don't appear to see any advantage in this happening.

Sure if the deal had been settled Cooper could have had a better balance sheet and PGG Wrightson would have captured some extra revenue - but it is still a relative mystery as to what benefits there would have been on farm.