Woolies extends drought milk
Woolworths will continue selling its special drought relief milk on the eastern seaboard for up to six more months.
The supermarket chain said drought relief milk had proved popular with millions of customers and provided $3.1 million in relief payments to more than 280 drought-affected dairy farmers across NSW, Queensland and Victoria so far.
The feedback from dairy farmers has been positive, with the monthly relief payments helping to alleviate acute drought-related financial stress.
The limited-edition range offers customers the option to buy Woolworths Full Cream and Woolworths Lite Milk varieties at $2.20 for two litres and $3.30 for three litres.
The extra 10 cents paid on each litre of milk is distributed in full to drought-affected dairy farmers.
Dairy Connect chief executive officer a Woolworths Drought Relief Committee member Shaughn Morgan said the industry advocate body was grateful Woolworths has listened to representations on behalf of dairy producers at this time of year.
“Our farmer members have used the Woolies’ drought relief funds during the past three or four months to underpin the cost of buying-in fodder for their cows,” he said.
“This has allowed some producers to slow the process of destocking.”
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Cargill sells malt sites
US farm commodities giant Cargill will sell its malt business, including 15 malt plants, to Belgian-based Boortmalt.
Cargill’s Joe White Maltings business in Australia is the country’s largest malt producer for local and Asian markets, with six plants in five states.
The Cargill malt business, or part of it, was mooted as a potential target for GrainCorp.
Boortmalt is one of the world's leading maltsters with 10 malting plants in Europe producing more than a million tonnes of malt a year.
It is also a market leader in the United Kingdom and Ireland servicing the whisky and speciality malt trades.
Its French parent company, Axereal, specialising in growing and processing cereals for the brewing, baking and livestock industries.
Axereal is a 13,000-strong co-operative operating in 13 countries.
The sale, subject to regulatory and other approvals, is expected to be finalised in the second half of 2019.
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McBrides profit from wool price
Close on the heels of paying $70 million for western Victoria’s “Telopea Downs”, big South Australian-based grazing enterprise, AJ and PA McBride, has reported an $8.2 million operating profit for the 2018 financial year, up 15 per cent.
The 99-year old fifth generation family company has more than 1.1 million hectares of farmland producing lamb, wool, and winegrapes.
It bought “Telopea Downs” from Qatar's sovereign wealth fund-owned Hassad Australia in August.
Chairman Keith McBride said “the stars had aligned”, including high wool and meat prices, low interest rates and improved land values, to give the company a statutory $19.7m profit on top of a strong result last year.
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Petrol prices hit 10-year highs in October in Australia’s five largest cities but have fallen significantly since then, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s latest petrol monitoring report for the September quarter 2018.
Daily average prices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth peaked at 159.9 cents a litre in late October.
By late November, however, prices had fallen more than 30c to 128.5c/litre.
Significant fluctuations in the price of crude oil have been the primary contributor to the dramatic swings in petrol prices in recent months.
A weakening Australian dollar also increased the wholesale price for fuel.
“Huge spikes in crude oil prices in September and October hit drivers hard,” said ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.
“This unfortunately shows how we are captive to decisions made by the OPEC cartel.
Thankfully, falling crude oil prices contributed to lower petrol prices at the bowser in November.”
Crude oil prices surged between July and October due to production cuts by the OPEC cartel and other crude oil producing nations, like Russia.
US sanctions against Iran, the political and economic crisis in Venezuela, and decreasing US crude oil inventories also played a role.
Crude oil prices then fell substantially during November, due to concerns over a global trade war and increasing US shale oil production.
Information about price cycles was available on the ACCC’s website, including tips on when to buy petrol, depending on where the cycle is currently at.
Andrew Marshall
Andrew Marshall is the group agribusiness writer for ACM's state agricultural weeklies and websites. He is a former editor at The Land and has worked in various Rural Press group roles in Canberra, North Richmond (NSW) and Toowoomba (Qld).
Andrew Marshall is the group agribusiness writer for ACM's state agricultural weeklies and websites. He is a former editor at The Land and has worked in various Rural Press group roles in Canberra, North Richmond (NSW) and Toowoomba (Qld).
