Weekly Agribusiness News Recap

This article is bought to you by Stocka.

Georgia Devenish - Agricultural Research Analyst at JLL

Two Northern Territory stations - "Tanumbirini" and "Forrest Hill"- have been added to the portfolio Rallen Australia has been assembling over the past 2 years. Rallen Australia is a South Africa-based company backed by Givanni Ravazzotti, one of South Africa’s richest men, his daughter Luciana Ravazzotti Langenhoven, and his son-in-law Pierre Langenhoven of Sydney, Australia. The $70 million transaction follows the purchase of the 376,000 hectare "Kalala Station" for $58 million in May 2019, and the 71,000 hectare "Mt McMinn Station", and 70,800 hectare "Big River Station" for $7.5 million and $5.5 million respectively in May 2018.

"Tanumbirini" and "Forrest Hill" were previously owned by Thames Pastoral, a subsidiary of Insight Global Farmland Fund Ltd, who acquired the stations in 2012 for circa $33 million from pastoralist, Sterling Buntine. The sale of both stations was managed by Rawdon Briggs and Bram Pollock of Colliers International, and Geoff Warriner and Chris Holgar of JLL.

Lactalis Australia, a French-owned dairy business, has announced it will be closing its Rockhampton factory and scaling back yogurt production at its South Brisbane site, citing changes to milk supply within Queensland. In a statement, Lactalis Australia said the Rockhampton factory had not been at full production – running only three or four days a week – "for a number of years." The decisions came after a review of the company’s Queensland operations.

According to its website, Lactalis is the largest dairy company in the world, with 80,000 employees in 94 countries. If the name Lactalis Australia isn't familiar its brands surely are; its portfolio includes Pauls, Vaalia, Ice Break, Oak, Breaka, Lemnos, President and Galbani.

Rising demand for Australian fine wines pushed the total value of Australian exports up three percent to $2.91 billion in the 12 months to December 2019, according to Wine Australia. Exports of higher valued wines (i.e. valued at $10 per litre or more FOB (Free On Board)) increased 22 percent to a record $1.1 billion. Exports in this category have more than tripled since 2014 to the point where it accounts for more than a third of the total value of wine exports.

Consistent with the trends in many key markets, as Australian exports increased at the higher end, they declined at lower price points. The decline was strongest for exports below $2.50 per litre FOB, with value falling by 17 percent to $463 million. The total value of exports in 2019 was the second highest for a calendar year and value is approaching levels that haven't been seen since before the Global Financial Crisis.

#FarmTender2020 - Focus on Farming Systems - June 5th, Bendigo, Vic

Tickets available now - click here

Symptoms of Panama disease tropical race 4 (TR4) - what the Queensland Government describe as the biggest biosecurity threat to Australia's $580 million banana industry - have been detected on a banana farm in the Tully Valley, in Far North Queensland. The discovery of the devastating fungal disease was made during routine surveillance conducted by Biosecurity Queensland officers in January. If confirmed, the banana farm would be the fourth in Far North Queensland to be contaminated, and the first case of the soil-borne disease in two years. It is understood that it could take up to six weeks for Biosecurity Queensland to confirm the latest case.

Receivers KordaMentha have announced the sale of two sites in Northern Tasmania which had been owned by Gunns Limited, a listed Tasmanian woodchip company that entered voluntary administration in September 2012 with massive debt after it failed to get bank funding for the pulp mill it planned to build on one of these sites. The sales, totaling 363 hectares, comprise the former pulp mill site at Long Reach and a site near George Town which was originally proposed for a worker's village during pulp mill construction. Gunns Limited bought the pulp mill site for $7 million from Rio Tinto in 2007 and spent some $200 million on getting permits for the proposed pulp mill.

$25 million has been pledged by the Federal Government to support development of Iron Road Limited's Cape Hardy Port Precinct on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula. The funding will support the development of the new multi-commodity deep-water port capable of handling cape-size vessels, the largest class of dry cargo ships in the world. "This $25 million seed funding is expected to drive the balance of equity and debt finance required for the Cape Hardy Stage I port development," said Iron Road Chief Executive Officer, Larry Ingle. "Financial close and construction is aggressively being targeted in 2020 to accelerate this long-awaited infrastructure for the Eyre Peninsula."

The Peru-Australia Free Trade Agreement (PAFTA) will be enacted from 11 February 2020 after being signed in 2018. Peru’s GDP is comparable to that of Vietnam (US$215 and US$220 billion respectively), and it has been one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America over the last ten years. In 2017, two-way trade with Peru was worth $640 million. Beyond the benefits for Australians, James Yeomans, deputy head of mission of the Australian Embassy in Peru, told ComexPerú, "The Peruvian products with the greatest potential to enter the Australian market are avocados, asparagus, table grapes, blueberries, tangerines." Chile is the only other South American country with a FTA with Australia, it entered into force in the first quarter of 2009.