The Meat Industry Action Group (MIAG) is heading to the North Island this month, where it will hold a series of meetings with farmers.
Vice-chairman John Gregan said he hoped the meetings would send a message that farmers wanted change.
He also hoped to use the meetings to build momentum among shareholders in the two co-operatives, PPCS and Alliance Group, to push for a special meeting.
So far, the push for industry restructuring has been driven by farmers in Southland and South Canterbury, but Mr Gregan said many in the North Island wanted to hear what MIAG was saying.
The proposal from Alliance that a meat megacompany be created came unstuck when PPCS declined to sign a cooperation agreement because it had issues with the process Alliance was following, and because Anzco wanted to exclude its beef business from the new entity.
MIAG is hoping an agreement might be reached if enough shareholders demand it.
Anzco and Affco have both said they will not devote any time to a similar proposal until the two co-operatives settle their differences.
‘‘Against this backdrop, our current position is that until there is tangible evidence that the South Island co-operatives can find a way forward together and act jointly, there is little point Affco spending any further resource on this particular concept,'' chairman Sam Lewis and chief executive Stuart Weston said in a statement.
They agreed that structural change would benefit the meat industry and farmer returns would be helped by coordinating marketing and rationalising costs.
