Kimberley cottoning on
THE Western Australian Government has signed a lease with the Kimberley Cotton Company consortium so it can establish its cotton gin and associated storage sheds at Kununurra.
KCC, which will involve a 10 per cent shareholding by eastern states ginner, Namoi Cotton, will build on a 79 hectare site in the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley for an anticipated start to ginning in 2025.
Traditional land owners in the region, represented by the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, are also stakeholders.
WA Agriculture and Food Minister, Alannah, said preliminary work had also begun to expand cotton production area to supply the gin, with the upgrade of a channel to supply sufficient water to irrigators.
The government was working with KCC to help the development, providing $4 million towards electricity infrastructure upgrades.
Ms MacTiernan said the gin would be serviced by a fully renewable, reliable, efficient power supply, using hydroelectricity with low carbon emissions, giving WA cotton an advantage in a global marketplace where customers increasingly demanded sustainably produced fibre products.
.........
Wellard buys back the Ute
Livestock export shipper, Wellard, is about to take repossession of one of the vessels it previously owned, the Ocean Ute.
The deal with current owners, ship financiers Ruchira Ships, was to have been wrapped up at the end of July, but is now due to be finalised next week.
Sold less than two years ago, the repurchase agreement timeline was extended to allow Ruchira to complete banking and administrative obligations.
.........
Kilter Rural's water pays
Natural capital investment company, Kilter Rural, has achieved a 22.3 per cent return on its open water funds, made up of permanent water entitlements and leasing covenants with irrigators.
Its Murray Darling Basin Balanced Water Fund delivered 17.5pc returns while also making one of the largest private environmental water donations in Australian history.
Kilter Rural's water fund, launched in 2014, has consistently delivered more than 14pc in investor returns since inception.
Kilter, which has more than $300 million in funds under management said the latest result and the company's track record highlighted continuing strength in the water investment market, particularly demand from high value permanent horticulture plantings.
The Murray-Darling Basin Balanced Water Fund launched in partnership with The Nature Conservancy Australia in 2015 to invest in southern Murray-Darling Basin water markets to support irrigation farmers with water under long-term leases.
It also delivers environmental water donations to wetlands and has averaged investor returns above 13pc.
Kilter Rural chief executive officer, Cullen Gunn, said the business had experienced unprecedented investor interest in the deployment of capital towards natural capital assets such as water, farmland and ecosystem services.
.........
Beston bests expectations
Dairy and meat processor, Beston Global Food Company, has sold 16.6 tonnes of lactoferrin, equating to almost its entire production for the current financial year, and about 50 per cent more than anticipated.
The South Australian business said some new supplier contracts were added to its 2022 supply cohort to secure additional milk.
"Our production and commercial teams are working on sales to other potential customers, which if realised, will significantly surpass our previous sales expectations of only 10t in 2022-23," said chief executive officer, Fabrizio Jorge.
"Some promising new sales and customers have also been achieved in recent months in the Provincial Food Group (meat) and AquaEssence (bottled water) divisions.
"As a result of the uncertainties and disruption brought on by global events in the past eight months, the world is facing a food supply deficit much sooner than had been predicted based on population growth, and Beston is in a good place to play its part supplying hungry consumer markets."
.........
Westpac combo branches
Westpac Banking Group is to co-locate about 100 of its St George Bank subsidiary's branches into space shared with its main banking operations during the next 18 months.
It is also reducing the size of its 800-strong national branch network as its banking services continue to attract more online customers.
Westpac, which also owns Bank of Melbourne and BankSA, says the move is not part of any plan to merge its different brands under one name.
It currently has 21 branches operating both St George and Westpac services, but will allow any customer of its different brands to conduct banking in the branch of another lender.
.........
Govt debt blowout alert
The Institute of Public Affairs warns rapidly rising interest rates on top of two decades of reckless past government spending will cause an explosion in the federal government's annual debt repayments to $89 billion by 2030.
That would equate to double the current annual defence budget, or the education budget, or about three times the current annual National Disability Insurance Scheme's annual budget.
A landmark IPA study says with inflation estimated to climb to 7.75 per cent, the Reserve Bank of Australia's benchmark cash interest rate has nowhere to go but up, and fast.
If the RBA rate reaches 7pc by 2030 it will more than quadruple current annual interest repayments of $20b.
"An annual $89b debt repayment bill would mean debt servicing will become the third highest annual expenditure item in the federal budget, behind only welfare and social services and health," said IPA deputy executive director, Daniel Wild.
"Our massive debt burden is an indictment on all sides of politics, who have run up debt through reckless spending while asserting that inflation and interest rate hikes were a thing of the past."
Government's debt obligations could only be repaid by increasing taxes or reducing spending, putting a disproportionate burden on middle and working class Australians.
.........
Elders CFO moves
Elders' group treasurer, Paul Rossiter, is taking on an acting chief financial officer's role while the farm services company searches for a replacement for Tania Foster, who leaves at the end of August.
Ms Foster, who joined Elders' head office team in Adelaide in May 2021, is returning to Melbourne for family reasons.
Mr Rossiter has been with the company 18 years, including 10 as group treasurer, having previously worked in the finance sector with Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.
.........
China trade student tour
The National Farmers Federation is calling for students with an interest in Australia's trade relationship with China to join the Australia-China Agricultural Youth Program's five-day paddock to port tour.
The Australia-China ag program will draw students from across the country to get up close and personal to agriculture, visiting south western Victoria from October 3 to 7.
The tour departs from Melbourne and covers all costs to multiple farms, offering hands-on experience and contact with producers and exporters, as well as the opportunity to build connections with like-minded students from across cultures.
International students studying in Australia and Australian domestic students should apply by August 15.
.........
Taiwan chip tensions
Electronic data chip shortages could intensify because of rising tensions between China and the US over Taiwan.
Taiwan produces as much as two thirds of the world's total electronic contact chip products including about 25pc of semiconductors used in computers controlling automotive gear such as cars, trucks, trains and farm machinery.
Computer technology giant, Intel, recently warned ongoing of computer chip shortages caused by the coronavirus pandemic, rising demand, a shortage of manufacturing equipment and recent water supply shortages in Taiwan, would likely drag on until 2024.
Now the company has noted there would be a "major crisis" for the industry if Taiwan's chip exports were cut off by Beijing.
Intel's European chief Frans Scheper estimated about 80pc of electronic chips used in mobile phones were sourced from Asia, with particular emphasis on exports from Taiwan.
Start the day with all the big news in agriculture! Sign up below to receive our daily Farmonline newsletter.