China’s biggest Aussie Rules fan
S.Kidman and Company’s junior Chinese owner, Shanghai CRED, is again lining up as the major backer supporting the Australian Football League’s (AFL) efforts to promote Aussie Rules in China.
The AFL has confirmed its Round 9 game between Port Adelaide and the Gold Coast Suns will be at Jiangwan Stadium in May next year.
The stadium will be renamed Adelaide Arena for the game.
Port Adelaide’s major backer in China is Shanghai CRED boss, Gui Guojie, whose real estate and property development business now owns 33 per cent of the Kidman pastoral empire in partnership with Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting.
Shanghai CRED also owns five cattle properties in the West Australian Goldfields region and the Kimberley’s Yakka Munga Station and Mount Elizabeth Stations, all bought last year prior to the Kidman joint venture deal with Mrs Rinehart.
The AFL plans to stage premiership matches in China for the next 10 years.
Outback mayor joins FRRR
Queensland’s Barcoo Shire Mayor, Bruce Scott, is joining the board of the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR), replacing beef producer, former media owner and Queensland philanthropist, Tim Fairfax.
FRRR chairman, Ian Sinclair, said like Mr Fairfax, Mr Scott shared a passion for the Tackling Tough Times Together program, having been involved with the program since 2014.
“His experience in agriculture, knowledge of local government and deep understanding of the challenges and priorities of those living in regional communities make him a great addition.”
Mr Scott runs a cattle station,”Moothandella”, in Queensland’s Channel Country and has served on boards and local, state and federal government committees, and was was recently recognised in the Queen’s birthday Honours List for services to local government and the community.
Butter still short overseas
Global butter prices are tipped to be high well into next year as production and exports stay constrained.
Modest export increases of butter and anhydrous milk fat are expected to take New Zealand’s output to 519,000 tonnes next year accordin to US Department of Agriculture forecasts, while the European Union’s butter exports are tipped to sit at 185,000t.
The EU and NZ contribute more than 80 per cent of exports to global markets, but other dairy market priorities and reduced milk production have cut butter production.
NZ milk output is expected to rise by 0.5pc next year, while EU, milk output will grow just 0.1pc, after herd numbers declined during recent poor milk prices.
Recently listed infant foods marketer, Bubs Australia, has launched its Bubs Advance Plus Goat Milk Infant Formula and new Bubs Organic Baby Cereals and Toothy Rusks into the Chinese market via the Alibaba e-commerce platform Tmall.
The Bubs range will be sold through the Chemist Warehouse site, one of the busiest international retailer “storefronts” on Tmall Global.
The “Mother and Baby” category is Chemist Warehouse’s largest product category making up around 30 per cent of the retailer’s.
Tmall is the largest business to customer e-commerce retail platform in Asia, enabling businesses to sell directly to hundreds of millions of shoppers throughout China.
Funds for Israeli super seed breeder
Leading Israeli-based private equity fund, Fortissimo Capital, has invested $5 million in seed breeder, Equinom, to support commercialisation of high protein legume varieties and a high yielding sesame seed.
The Israeli-based technology seed breeding company is developing specialised non-genetically modified crops for the food industry.
Equinom’s advanced breeding technology is based on proprietary algorithms and calculation methods developed by the company, which combine classic breeding with genomic and bio-informatics methods.
Founded in 2012, it has developed pea, chickpea and cowpeas containing 50 per cent more protein than any commercial variety available.
Its high yielding sesame seed, grown for oil and tahini, is now being trialled in Australia and the US, and will be suitable for mechanical harvesting, opening the supply chain to production anywhere in the world.
Despite global sesame sales exceeding $10 billion annually, it is mostly harvested manually and production has been limited to third world countries where manual labor is available on a large scale.