Agribusiness buzz in brief

The company is now considering selling its underperforming dairy assets, Paris Creek Farms and St David Dairy.

Despite the group reporting a 13 per cent sales lift, including a 165pc jump in e-commerce sales, for the year-to-date trading period to April 30, it has cut full year pre-tax earnings expectations by $4.2 million, to a range of $9.2m and $10.5m.

Almost $3m of the fall in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was attributed to the dairy division of the listed company, which takes its name from major shareholder and Barossa Valley cooking celebrity, Maggie Beer.

The company's overall performance was impacted by disruption to retail grocery orders and unforeseen COVID-19 costs, with the dairy operation suffering high staff churn, increased milk freight costs and a delayed roll-out of its Paris Creek branded milk to NSW and Victorian stores because of the pandemic and floods.

GrainCorp has confirmed it will spend up to $50 million buying back its own shares from investors.

Details of the deal will be released within a few months.

The buyback is set to further support the company's bullish share price, currently trading around $10.17, but down from peaks above $10.40 a share in early May.

Despite strong prospects for another promising 2022-23 winter crop and soaring global grain prices, some market analysts responded to last week's $246m record half year profit with concerns the east coast grain logistics, marketing and processing giant's earnings potential had hit its ceiling.

GrainCorp has already announced an interim fully franked dividend of 24 cents a share, half of which is a special dividend reflecting the company's recent outstanding performance.

Managing director, Robert Spurway, said given its strong balance sheet and GrainCorp's financial outlook, a share buyback was a way to offer additional funds to investors given the business had exhausted available franking credits with its latest dividend payment.

The buyback will make optimum use of the company's available funds in its second half, following a big spend on harvest grain purchases and infrastructure expenses in the first six months of the financial year.

Five high-performing apiarists are state finalists in the inaugural Australian Honey Bee Industry Council's Australian Beekeeper Award.

The new award program will celebrate emerging leaders within the beekeeping industry, which contributes $14.2 billion a year through pollination services to the national economy, as well as supporting regional communities.

AHBIC chairman, Trevor Weatherhead, said the finalists had diverse backgrounds - from multigenerational beekeepers to professional pollination service providers and recreationalists who had turned professional.

"Each articulated their own distinct perspective and thoughts on the long-term sustainability of the industry, as well as innovative ideas for raising awareness of the importance of honey bees to Australians," he said.

The finalists attend a two-day professional development workshop in Brisbane before the winner is announced at Sydney's Australian Bee Congress in June.

They are: Zac Alcock, Central West Apiaries, NSW; Jack Stone, Bee One Third, Queensland; Jake Leske, The Queens Cut, South Australia; Lindsay Callaway, Warral Maldon, Victoria, andJulie Dinsdale, Honey in the Garden, Western Australia.

The A2 Milk Company will have an interim chief financial officer until October following the resignation of Race Strauss, who joined the trans-Tasman business two and a half years ago alongside short-lived former managing director, Jayne Hrdlicka.

Both previously worked together at Qantas.

His repacement at the specialist milk and infant formula business will be David Muscat, who previously worked with current A2 boss, David Bortolussi, at Pacific Brands, which became Hanesbrands.

A2 group's head of finance, Mark Sherwin, will act as interim CFO for the next five months.

Meanwhile, A2 is now defending a third class action after Thorn Law filed proceedings in the High Court of New Zealand claiming its market guidance in 2020 was misleading and seeking compensation for its share price slide between August 2020 and May 2021.

Class action claims in the Supreme Court of Victoria were lodged in October and November last year by Slater and Gordon and Shine Lawyers, which A2 has responded to saying it complied with its reporting obligations.

Home loan customers with prominent regional lender Bendigo Bank are the most satisfied in the business, according to new financial data from consumer monitoring group Roy Morgan.

Bendigo Bank topped the latest banking customer satisfaction ratings among home loan customers, rising from 89.9 per cent in March 2021, to 91.2pc a year later.

Customers with ING, Macquarie, Suncorp and Bankwest followed with satisfaction ratings respectively at 89.6pc, 86.4pc, 86.2pc and 84.6pc.

The biggest improver was Macquarie, up 7.8pc in the past year.

However, overall home loan customer satisfaction among Australia's top 12 banks collectively slipped 1pc to 78.6pc, which included a period when there was still significant deferred loan repayment support available to hundreds of thousands of customers.

In mid-2020 nearly 450,000 home loans were deferred as customers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic took an initial payment pause.

Ten entrepreneurs and business leaders passionate about creating positive rural communities will attend the Social Enterprise World (Rural) Forum in Beechworth, Victoria in September.

They also access a package of capacity building support worth $5000, thanks to Westpac Agribusiness and the forum's major partner, Westpac Foundation.

The 2022 Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF22) is a major assembly for international exchange and collaboration in social entrepreneurship and social investment.

Its Rural Forum focuses on fostering local community entrepreneurship and addressing unique challenges faced by those living outside metropolitan areas.

The 10 grant recipients are: Rebel Black, chief executive officer at The Hungry Spirit, Lightning Ridge, Tiffany Winters, Yarruu Indigenous Corporation chair, Brewarrina and Young Farmers Connect co-ordinator, Joel Orchard, Lismore, all from NSW; Victoria's Wilderness Workspace lead Mary O'Malley, Mallacoota, Rebecca Crawley, Dumu Limited, Bright, and Matt Grogan, Halliday Solicitors, Beechworth; Queensland's Ethix Group director, Kalair McArthur, Wandal; Vanguard Laundry's Harry Sillett, Harristown and Holly Cowan from District Council of Cleve, South Australia, and from Northern Territory, Alexie Seller, the Enterprise Learning Projects/Impact North, Parap.

The Social Enterprise Business Boost recipients' package includes attendance at the 3-day SEWF Rural Forum hosted by the Australian Centre for Rural Entrepreneurship including accommodation and $500 funding towards travel.

They also score a digital ticket to the World Forum in Brisbane and two Westpac Davidson Institute financial education sessions for guidance on money matters, including maximising profits, saving or cash flow.

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