The prize? Money. The motivation? Greed

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By Dwain Duxson - An Ag Enthusiast

The prize? Money. The motivation? Greed - Yesterday's S&W Seed Company story has attracted lots of replies. Read the article here before going any further for context. Some of the replies are from creditors (Farmers) who are absolutely filthy (that's a nice word) with how they have been treated. It's like a rigged Horse race where you have the jockeys, a few trainers and the steward all involved, all trying to do their bit to pull it off and get the result. The prize? Money. The motivation? Greed.

It's interesting how sneaky the NAB Bank has been here. One of the creditors sent this in: "Hi, Dwain. Good article. The bit that gets even grubbier is that NAB had apparently acknowledged that S&W had crossed several red lines with their loan but allegedly had allowed S&W to continue for a while. That 'while' happened to be the amount of time that allowed a full Lucerne Seed Harvest (maybe a couple of thousand tonnes of Lucerne seed), plus what you said about the Sunflower harvest. 

I am a Lucerne Seed Farmer and creditor to S&W, and the whole thing f"*^ing stinks. 

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NAB, now that the Avior DOCA has been signed, is free of liability from any legal repercussions. Disgusting. My seed cleaner said that there were independent auditors going around doing stocktakes of inventory weeks (perhaps months) before the voluntary administration was announced. NAB knew exactly what was happening, and they knew that they had to wait until all of the growers had delivered Clover seed, Lucerne Seed and Sunflowers so that they had a chance of clawing back some of their loan. NAB saw the bus coming, and they gently bumped us straight in front of it. 

Their role in this is abhorrent, and they deserve to be publicly shamed for their part. The bullying by Deloitte into signing Avior's deal is all spot on. The relationships between NAB, Deloitte and Avior (and even the general manager of S&W Aust) are way too cosy and matey. It all smells".

All this does is make Farmers trust companies less. We have seen it in the Grain industry, and a lot of the time, it's been orchestrated like this one. I know a few people said they thought S&W Seeds was a company they could trust. I feel for the creditors and what they are going through. They should, by rights, have a leg to stand on, but whether they want to take it further is their call. Does this make you very wary of who you are dealing with? Reply to dwaind@farmtender.com.au

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