The cooperative itself is looking to fill 87 vacancies for its Waikato business, such as tanker drivers, operations staff for its milk processing factories, through to staff for its retail stores and farm field teams.

It’s also making changes to ensure its vendors are paid more quickly, accelerating cash flow to its small and medium-sized business partners, to ease pressure during the Covid-19 recovery phase.

Waikato Farm Source regional head Debra Kells said the job vacancy numbers for the company were about the same as last year but there was a bigger focus on finding people to work this winter as the country moves into recovery mode.

“Our Fonterra vacancies are about gearing up for the new season, from our milk processing factories through to our 15 retail stores throughout the region.”

Kells said the jobs on offer at Fonterra are posted on the company’s website while the vacancies on its farmer-supplier farms are on its Farm Source website.

“We really encourage people looking for work to visit the websites, sign up and put their details in, so they get notifications.”

Farmers had the ability to post their job vacancies on the company’s Farm Source website too.

“It just makes it an easier process for our farmers.”

She agreed there were likely to be more on-farm jobs available i Waikato, via other job seeker platforms.

Dairy NZ launched its Go Dairy website recently, which highlights careers in the dairy industry.

Kells said Fonterra nationally had been looking at other avenues to support its employees and farmers, customers and consumers, as well as its local communities.

Fonterra has about 3700 employees in Waikato.

It has 3000 small and medium-sized vendors across the country and the dairy company is introducing a new system to reduce the time it takes to pay those businesses.

From July 1, it will pay vendors within 10 working days from the receipt of invoice, previously payment terms for SMEs were the 20th of the month, following the invoice date.

“That’s effectively 485 vendors throughout the Waikato from a total of 3000 small and medium-sized vendors throughout the country,” Kells said.

“We understand what small companies are going through at the moment and that cash flow is very important.

“This is a national initiative but we are also exploring what we can do at a local level to support our vendors, farmers and communities.”