Understanding what members want and how they work is a key to FGC, Chief Executive Raewyn Bleakley has told the annual conference in Queenstown.
In just her fourth week in the job, she told members she wanted to meet as many members as possible as quickly so she could to get a grasp on the things members valued most.
“I’ve been impressed with how the council has been operating, how knowledgeable and engaged members are about the issues they face, how genuine the intent of the industry is to have good outcomes around sustainability and consumers getting fairer prices, and how they care about things not being wasted on bureaucracy.”
During an interview on stage with Chair Mike Pretty, she said her challenge was to get across this and to represent it really well on members’ behalf.
One thing was to have a look at the work being done by FGC’s working groups to see if it can be widened or refined.
She earmarked the work FGC was doing around sustainability as one of her passions that she wanted to learn more about to continue to push that forward.
“The real exciting challenge is working with the membership, the Board and the Government to make sure the grocery market changes will be truly effective.”