FORMER CBH chairman Neil Wandel has predictably copped criticism for his stinging public attack last week of the current CBH Board.
Mr Wandel said the co-op's inability to rationalise its storage and handling network was "ridiculous" and linked to polling outcomes during grower-director elections.
He said he understood - from a rumour - that the CBH board had been slow on signing off on any change to its network strategy because it wanted to avoid making any serious announcements, until after the current elections, "because the directors wanted to get re-elected".
Experienced CBH director Kevin Fuchsbichler, who has been on the board since 2007 and is currently facing re-election in District 3 against two other candidates, said he was "disappointed" with Mr Wandel's public criticism of the CBH Board, describing it as "very unprofessional".
In saying CBH had no long-term strategy, the Bruce Rock grower said Mr Wandel had only criticised his own legacy given the strategy remained unchanged, since his departure 11 months ago.
"Things don't change that dramatically in such a relatively short time," Mr Fuchsbichler said. "This is basically the same board as Neil presided over."
Mr Fuchsbichler said Mr Wandel also "had a go" at him for his election flyer stating that no grower should cart grain more than 40km to a bin.
But he said the actual number was 45km, which was derived from feedback provided by growers at about 20 pre-harvest meetings in his zone.
"There's no point doing a big network strategy plan like what happened 10 or 11 years ago and then expect directors to go out and sell a plan that nobody wants," he said.
"You need to go and ask growers what they want, so at meetings I attended in the Kwinana south zone, about 45km was the distance growers felt the trucks they have now, would be able keep up with their headers, bearing in mind we're only allowed to use pocket road trains in this zone.
"In time and with bigger trucks that distance may stretch further - one grower also said they could do 100km provided they could unload in 10 minutes."
Mr Fuchsbichler said the CBH Board had been more cohesive with all directors' views well respected, since Mr Wandel's departure.
"We've all got different points of view on the Board - which is good - and we're not afraid of robust debate," he said.
"In the nine years I've been there, I've never seen the board so united and the decisions we've made since Neil's departure have been better because it has not been divisive and everyones opinion is respected."
Mr Wandel also said current grower Board members - which he didn't name - were motivated by the "lifestyle" they gained from the role and would only "look after their own jobs" in making any assessment of the reported Australian Grains Champion's (AGC) corporatisation move.
Mr Fuchsbichler said he was not reliant on his directors' fee and had no plans to be the biggest farmer in Australia.
"I have an average-sized farm that pays its way and also have off-farm investments," he said.
"But it's not all about the money.
"This industry has been good to me and I want to give a bit back also to CBH and help the next generation who also want to go farming in the future, like my son."
Mr Fuchsbichler said if the AGC corporatisation model was as good as it had been reported to be, a formal request should be presented to the CBH Board as soon as possible, to be assessed on its merits and then let growers decide.
"If they've got an offer, put it on the table and we'll have a look at it and then we have a professional obligation to put it to the growers," Mr Fuchsbichler said. "They are the shareholders of CBH and they make the decision."
But Mr Fuchsbichler said in his experience, after a co-op was corporatised, its focus changed from returning value to grower members to delivering external profits to investor shareholders.
"Basically what former co-ops end up doing is preying on the profits of growers to pay these outside investors because they've changed focus," he said.
"The thing I've always been disappointed with most is when people go out and canvass to be on the CBH Board they never say in their campaigns to be elected, that they favour corporatisation, until they get into the board room."
Mr Fuchsbichler also rejected Mr Wandel's suggestion that CBH needed to make radical changes to its co-op structure in order to handle mounting competition in the deregulated grains market.
He said since Bunge had opened for business at the Bunbury Port in late 2014, they had shipped less than 270,000 tonnes of grain but during the same time CBH had exported more than 27 million tonnes.
"CBH has been known to do 270,000t in a week," he said.
"CBH are definitely handling the competition as we're still getting the grain and looking after the needs and interests of our growers and customers."
Mr Fuchsbichler said that four years ago, after conducting a global search and assessment of different operating structures, 96 per cent of grower members voted on constitutional changes to approve the current co-operative structure.
He said the structure was being "continually tweaked" but rewarded active growers, big and small, with about $115 million in rebates paid, on charges and freight, since that change.
"If CBH was a publicly-listed company do you think that that money would have gone back to growers?" he asked.