Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings, right, and chairman John Wilson.

Fonterra farmers are divided over whether board chairman John Wilson should "catch the next cab out of town", as Cabinet Minister Shane Jones has demanded.

At the Fieldays in Hamilton views ranged from "shareholders should be left to deal with it" to calls for him to stand down to refresh the leadership at the top of New Zealand's largest company.

Wilson has been on the Fonterra board for four terms and chairman for the past two. He is the highest paid director in the country, receiving $405,000 for overseeing a company of 22,000 employees and with sales revenue of $19.2b.

"I'm worried about the absolute absence of accountability for the enormous amounts of dough that the current Fonterra chairman has presided over," Regional Development Minister Jones said.

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Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says Fonterra's leadership should "focus less on interfering in politics and more on justifying the money they've lost overseas".

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has put distance between the Government and Jones' comments.

Jones had made clear his comments were made in a "personal capacity", Ardern said during a visit to Fieldays near Hamilton. 

"He did not make them as a minister and it's not Government policy, end of story. We have ministers share personal opinions all of the time but what I'm making clear here is it is not Government policy and, as I say, end of story."

However, National's Primary Industries spokesman Nathan Guy responded it was an "outrageous" attack and now was not an appropriate time for Wilson to stand down.

"You've got the chief executive leaving, and Michael Spaans who has recently passed away was being groomed for the leadership. It's a big job, indications are John Wilson's standing again, while there have been some issues that need to be addressed, I think now is not the time for change, right now the board will be looking for continuity and stability."

Guy said the shareholders he had spoken to were outraged. NZ First was struggling with its poll ratings, and were "disconnected from the real world". Guy, who owns a dairy farm, is a Fonterra shareholder himself.

A Reporoa farmer whose family has been dairying for 100 years said Wilson should go.

"If there's a new CEO being appointed there should be a new chairman to appoint him or her. If the new CEO is there for six years or so, John isn't going to be around for that long, why should he stay. We need new blood."

He agreed there was a void in terms of potential leaders, but "maybe we need that for change".

Fonterra needed restructuring so the value-add business was floated off.

"Farmers should do what they're good at producing milk and let the value-add part do what it needs to do. That business has to start driving dollars into our business and not cents. Farmers would be a lot happier, they'd only be paying their CEO $4 million a year rather than $8m."

National's Nathan Guy, himself a Fonterra shareholder, says Shane Jones' attack on John Wilson is 'outrageous'.

Last year Theo Spierings was paid $8.93m, a 57 per cent jump from the year before. His earnings were made up of a $2.46m base salary, superannuation benefits of $170,036, and performance payments for 2016 and 2017 of $1.83m and $3.85m.

A Te Kuiti farmer said it was a matter for shareholders who were "perfectly capable" of dealing with the leadership issue when they vote later this year.

He said he had confidence the co-operative could turn around the poor performance of its Chinese partner Beingmate. Under Spierings and Wilson's tenure Fonterra made a $750m investment into Beingmate, which it has now written off to the tune of $405m.

"Australia has turned around for Fonterra and we're not moaning about that. I think China could turn around, and now Fonterra has more say on the Beingmate board."

The farmer said there should be a policy of turning its chief executive over every six years, and there should be a better succession plan.

"But farmers are their own worst enemy. They complain about the dividend being bugger all but the milk price is good. That's what they always told us - when the milk price is up the dividend will be down."

Board members are voted in by the 10,500 farmer/shareholders, but the chairman is then decided by the directors.

Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor said Fonterra was a good strong company but it could be better.

"A review is under way, it's not for me to say what should be changed but I would hope through the DIRA review that would throw up what some of those changes should be."

The Government has announced a review of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act which provides regulations for Fonterra and protects the long-term interests of farmers, consumers and the wider economy.

A Fonterra spokesman said Wilson had not signalled whether he would stay on or stand down.

 - Stuff