AWB Limited has been accused of disenfranchising its traditional customer base - grain growers.

At the company's annual general meeting in Melbourne last week, AWB was repeatedly berated for its lack of communication with growers.

"There has been a breakdown in communication between this board, this company and its customers," said grower Reg Holt.

"You (board directors) need to get out of your suits and get into harvesters to talk to farmers. Otherwise, you will lose your customers."

Beckom, NSW, grower Rod Hatty said he was concerned about the direction of the company during the past two years.

"You've just lost the confidence of growers," Mr Hatty said. "Growers are not here today."

AWB chairman Peter Polson rejected the claims, saying the company had received a greater percentage share of the national wheat crop than they had the previous season.

"To say we are not interested in growers is not true," Mr Polson said. "The world has moved on. AWB is a different entity today."

The small band of growers attending the meeting found some unlikely allies at this year's AGM, including shareholder activist Stephen Mayne and Australian Shareholders Association representative Rex McKenzie.

In the past, both had been strident critics of former grower directors of AWB over illegal payments to Iraq.

In the lead-up to AWB structural reform, Mr Mayne had lambasted former grower directors over their reluctance to support a new constitution.

Last week, Mr McKenzie criticised the current board and management over AWB's net loss of $251 million, including losses in its Brazilian operation, the Hi-Fert business and a substantial write down in Landmark Financial Services.

"The board seems to have been unaware of the serious disastrous trends in the business as they were with regards to the Oil For Food scandal," he said.

"Shareholders lack confidence in the board.

"It would seem to me that change is needed."

Mr Mayne also criticised the losses in Brazil.

"Smoking a couple of hundred mill (million dollars) in Brazil will go down in history as one of the greatest disasters of all time," he said.

Mr Polson said AWB management had identified the problems and the board had acted very quickly.

"Mistakes were made and they were recognised," he said.

"I am not going to go into a detailed description of blame.

"Having said that, a number of write-offs that we experienced during the past financial year have their genesis in the company a long time ago and there were a range of other directors involved in the mix at the time; there was a different chairman."