Gong for Goodfellow
Western Sydney University has made agribusiness and farmland acquisition specialist, and former agriculture student, David Goodfellow, its 2018 Hawkesbury Alumni Award winner, recognising his achievements in the sector.
The chief executive officer of Canadian pension fund-owned AustOn Corporation, has made his name in previous roles as a corporate leader heading up and expanding Macquarie Bank’s Paraway Pastoral and orchard group Aroona Farms, developing Chinese company, Rifa Salutary’s landholdings, and as the agency network boss at Elders.
Even during his Hawkesbury Agricultural College days in the 1980s and ‘90s, Mr Goodfellow gained a reputation as an entrepreneurial and talented people manager, running the campus bar with nearly 30 students working for him.
“David truly embodies the Hawkesbury spirit”, said Western Sydney University chancellor, Professor Peter Shergold.
“His ambition and vision to shape agriculture has delivered enormous benefits to Australia and opened up new opportunities to take Australian produce to the world.”
Coke looks to milk
Food and beverage industry speculation puts Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) as the most likely candidate to buy Lion’s dairy and drinks division, tipped to be up for sale by late October.
A research report by Citigroup described the Japanese-owned Lion’s white and flavoured milk, juice, yoghurt, cheese and dessert business as a potentially good acquisition for CCA, which had a limited juice and dairy drink product range only accounting for four per cent of its total beverage sales.
Juice was a challenging category, but dairy was in growth with ready-to-drink coffee and functional beverages offering growth options with good price realisation, the report said.
It said carbonated soft drinks sales, which were declining, represented 71pc of CCA turnover and CCA needed to expand its non-carbonated business.
“Lion Dairy and Drinks could be a good acquisition for CCA,” said Citigroup.
Lion Dairy and Drinks sales are about $2 billion a year.
Louis Dreyfus CEO change
Global farm commodity trading powerhouse, Louis Dreyfus Company, has surprised markets with news its chief executive officer, Gonzalo Ramirez Martiarena, and head of finance, Armand Lumens, have both quit.
Mr Martiarena was CEO for three years.
He will be be replaced by chief strategy officer, Ian McIntosh, while Federico Cerisoli, would become group CFO after Mr Lumens left for personal reasons just two years into the job.
A Louis Dreyfus statement said the resignations were "unrelated and coincidental", and were not connected to the group's first-half results, due out next month.
The company has been through a series of management changes in recent years under leadership of majority shareholder and chair, Margarita Louis-Dreyfus.
New pork research boss
Professor John Pluske has been appointed inaugural Chief Scientist and CEO of Australasian Pork Research Institute Limited (APRIL).
Professor Pluske from Murdoch University, Western Australia, will commit more than half his time to APRIL, while maintaining academic roles and duties at the university.
APRIL is an independent research entity continuing the collaborative approach to research and development of the successful Co-operative Research Centre for High Integrity Australian Pork (Pork CRC), which winds up in June 2019.
APRIL actively partners with industry and educational institutions to deliver research for the Australasian pork industry and commercial outcomes that generate financial returns for APRIL to support ongoing research, development and training.
Board chairman, Dennis Mutton acknowledged the work of APRIL’s interim CEO, Roger Campbell, who had ably led Pork CRC since its 2005 inception.
Copycat wine protection move
The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR) has released a consultation paper and called for industry feedback on a proposal to develop a new Wine Export Label Directory.
Winemakers Federation of Australia has been working with the Australian Government investigating options to strengthen the wine export regulatory system to deal with potential intellectual property infringements.
The intention of the new directory is to enable brand owners to monitor potential infringements to their intellectual property, thus protecting against the export of ‘copycat’ products.
A new national label directory of publicly searchable wine label intellectual property (IP) would enable brand owners to identify infringements of their IP and to take action to protect their rights.
It would also allow for closer regulatory co-operation with the authorities in major export markets.
The proposal and feedback details are available at: https://haveyoursay.agriculture.gov.au/wine-labels
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