Agribusiness buzz in brief

Recycling trials in South Australia are taking soiled disposable nappies from G8 Education childcare centres, removing the outer plastic coating and mixing their natural fibre and pulp lining with food waste.

About 40 per cent of a soiled disposable nappy is (enriched) organic content.

The maker of the big selling Huggies brand is working with a garden soil supplies company on the compost project using CSIRO-developed anaerobic processes rich in waste food, beverage and plant sugars to promote microorganisms to break down old nappies.

The Langhorne Creek trials are in their early stages.

Listed veterinary group, Apiam Animal Health, has completed its $6.5 million acquisition of specialist horse medical facility, the Hunter Equine Centre, at Scone in the horsey Upper Hunter.

The takeover follows similar acquisitions of dedicated equine clinics at Beaudesert in southern Queensland and Agnes Banks in the Hawkesbury Valley outside Sydney in the past 18 months, complementing Victorian equine facilities at Bendigo, Nagambie, Warrnambool and Maffra in Gippsland.

Apiam, which generated about 75 per cent of its $157m revenue in 2021-22 from the dairy and mixed animal segment, is on an accelerated growth trajectory, spending $53m last financial year to add 14 new clinics.

It has grown from 48 veterinary sites in 2019 to begin 2023 with more than 75.

Underlying net profit after tax grew 15pc to $6.7m in 2021-22, but Apiam's reported net profit actually fell after paying $1.4m in stamp duty on several Queensland purchases during the period.

Hort Innovation's recent annual general meeting elected Elke Cleverdon and Stephen McCutcheon and re-elected Jan Vydra to its board where Julie Bird has been returned as chair and Paul Harker continues as her deputy.

The new directors replace Professor Robert Clark and Anthony Kelly have left the board.

Ms Cleverdon is a non-executive director in the agribusiness and customer-owned banking sector, recently selected as one of 12 women on the National Farmers' Federation Diversity in Ag Leadership Program.

Mr McCutcheon has 40-plus years' experience with the agriculture and food sectors in private and public sector settings, including the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority, and as current chairman of Plant Health Australia.

Prominent agribusiness director, Sarah Scales, ends a decade of service on Queensland Sugar Limited's board this month, with a replacement due to be announced shortly.

Ms Scales, who spent nearly 15 years running the former AWB International export business from the early 1990s, has chaired QSL's trading risk committee, as well being on its audit and risk, and remuneration committees.

She is also a director of northern NSW grain trading services company, Agracom; South Australian almond grower, Aroona Farms; SA value-added grape product business, Tarac Australia, and the Ontario teachers pension fund's agricultural asset investor, Auston Corporation.

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THE Australian Banana Growers' Council has appointed Leanne Erakovic as chief executive officer following the retirement of Jim Pekin after 11 years.

Ms Erakovic, who first joined the ABGC as an office manager in 2015, has been executive officer for the past six.

The now-departed Mr Pekin has moved into into private consultancy work from his Sunshine Coast base.

His grower representative body career began with the Ricegrowers Association of Australia in 1984 and later included policy officer roles with Victorian Farmers Federation and Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.

Less than a third of women in Australia invest in shares, compared to just under half the male population, according to online financial broker, Savvy.

In a snapshot of personal finance trends in the share market the brokerage group found 60pc of Australians held no share market investments, including 67pc of women.

Savvy also found twice as many men (44pc) than women had superannuation worth more than $100,000 and less than a third of young Australians (18 to 24-year-olds) owned shares.

In general, about 15pc of Australians had between $1 and $5000 invested in shares; 7pc had between $5000 and $10,000, and 6pc owned more than $100,000 in shares.

Those most involved in the share market were in the 55- to 64-year-old demographic, with 13pc of these investors reporting holdings of at least $100,000.

About a third of all share owners said they were investing for retirement, with 11pc of investors reporting they bought shares to hedge against inflation and 4pc because interest rate returns on savings were low.

The environmental markets investor, carbon sequestration manager and conservation-for-profit organisation, GreenCollar, has adopted the Accounting for Nature standard to monitor its biodiversity projects and award credits.

Accounting for Nature works with farmers, indigenous land managers, private conservation organisations, businesses, investors and governments to implement a world-leading, scientifically-backed methodology for measuring environmental conditions.

GreenCollar's new NaturePlus voluntary credits pilot scheme hopes to lure investor capital into environmental improvement projects.

The scheme, verified via the Accounting for Nature framework, will involve land management projects dedicated to improving the condition of ecosystems, habitat and threatened species.

GreenCollar will manage the projects in partnership with landholders.

Founder, James Schultz, said drawing investors into meaningful, high integrity biodiversity markets which could help revive the environment required payments for outcomes and credible measurement processes rather than just modelling.

Chief executive officer of the International Fresh Produce Association Australia-New Zealand, Darren Keating, will leave the role in February after holding the job since 2016.

The organisation, formerly the Produce Marketing Association of Australia-New Zealand, has begun a recruitment process to find a replacement.

Meanwhile, new directors Kate Bryant, SeekaFresh; Dean Gall, Premier Fresh Australia; Tim Nitschke, Coles, and Catherine Velisha, Velisha Farms, have joined the board

The appointments followed the resignations of Jo Minton Connell, Verena Cunningham and Craig Taylor who departed during the past year, and Marie Piccone who retired by rotation at the recent annual general meeting.

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NORTH Queensland grower and businessman Joe Moro, is the new chairman of Queensland-based horticulture advocacy body, Growcom.

Mr Moro (pictured), A Moro and Sons, has grown a wide variety of crops over the years including zucchini, cucumbers, capsicum, watermelons and mangoes.

Also chairman of the Far North Queensland Growers Association, he takes over from Belinda Frentz who announced her retirement Growcom's November annual general meeting.

Also stepping down at the AGM were directors Sharon Windolf and Michael Kent.

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