Outgoing Fonterra Shareholders’ Council chair Blue Read says he feels a little guilty at the timing of his departure.

Read and deputy chair Campbell Shearer have both stepped down from their positions, to be replaced by Simon Couper and Ian Brown respectively.

He guided shareholders through a year of negotiations on Fonterra’s capital restructuring process, culminating in the recent approval of the Trading Among Farmers share system.

But he says it’s a little strange to be leaving without seeing the scheme put into practice.

"One starts on a job and would like to finish it off completely. Getting the concept of Trading Among Farmers passed with such a resounding result was absolutely magnificent, and I thought very long and very hard about whether it was appropriate to stay on until the implentation process was finished."

"And quite frankly you get a bit tired after a while. It's bloody hard work."

Read says he doubts the double departure be disruptive as TAF implementation looms.

"There's a reasonable amount of time. There's no expectation that Trading Among Farmers will be introduced for 12 to 15 months subsequent to the vote that we had last month, so there's plenty of time for people to get up to speed with the issues that exist there."