Agribusiness buzz in brief

Ms Culina joins Andrew and Nicola Forrest's newest agricultural sector investment from furniture retail chain, Coco Republic, where she was global brand and marketing director.

She has previously worked with Country Road and King Living and has held retail, e-Commerce and marketing roles in New Zealand, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada and the US.

Ms Culina looked forward to meeting the people who had shaped Akubra's 148-year history and was excited to be part of the Tattarang team, given the success it had enjoyed in reinvigorating and growing the R.M.Williams boots and clothing brand.

Tattarang chief executive officer, John Hartman, said she was the right person to take Akubra to the next level.

Sydney-based GrainCorp has moved its official headquarters, after almost two decades at 175 Liverpool Street, to Darling Harbour's Barangaroo business precinct.

The grain storage, marketing and processing business took the opportunity to relocate to a "more modern and collaborative environment" as its office lease was expiring this year and the building's owner planned to redevelop the site.

The new head office is on level 20 of Tower Two, International Towers, at 200 Barangaroo Avenue, Barrangaroo.

Management said last week's move to Barangaroo underpinned a commitment to "provide an optimal working environment for our teams".

The partnership taking over horticultural growing and marketing business, Costa Group, is promised to further build the company's agricultural assets and global business capacity.

The North American consortium of Paine Schwartz Partners, Driscolls Inc and the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation paid $3.20 a share ($1.5 billion) last month to buy the Australian business, which has a grower network in all states and China, Morocco and southern Africa.

Media reports have suggested the partnership plans to further invest at least another $200 million on local and overseas operations.

Driscolls, a world leader in berry breeding and marketing, has indicated it will infuse considerable resources into the Costa business and the capability to expand its footprint.

Paine Schwartz also has a long and $5.7 billion record in agribusiness investment, including backing Costa's growth between 2011 and 2015, and buying shares in the tomato, citrus, avocado, mushroom, berry and grape business in 2022, before leading last year's takeover move.

Costa Group's interim chief executive officer, Harry Debney said the new owners' extensive background of investing in and operating high quality agricultural assets would ensure the century old business' ongoing success.

Business fortunes are improving after a rough year for the A2 Milk Company, which recently revived its annual sales expectations, despite the risk of more trading challenges for its infant formula business.

The trans-Tasman specialist dairy business posted a 16 per cent rise in first half net profit after tax for 2023-24 to almost $80 million after revenue grew 3.7pc to $865.5m.

Helped by a new China label registration, infant formula sales defied expectations, lifting 1.5pc to make up 17pc of total sales and pushing A2's Australian share price to highs around $5.90 in the past fortnight.

Although up almost $1 a share on mid-February's price, A2 shares were worth about $7 a year ago.

However, the company noted infant formula sales in China were exposed to a falling birth rate - down 5.6pc last year to a record low 9 million new babies - and the overall Chinese formula market had seen double digit falls in volume and value.

A2 Milk Company is soon to release a new premium English language formula label, Gentle Gold, for the local and South East Asia market and wants to expand its registered range in China to boost exposure in a market where its major rivals have 10 or more formula products.

Woolworths Group's stand-alone red meat supply chain business, Greenstock, has appointed former GrainCorp executive, Felicity Coventry (nee Hennessy), as its strategic sourcing and producer partnerships general manager.

Ms Coventry's agribusiness career has involved closely working with farmers and transformation and leadership experience, most recently as GrainCorp's transformation general manager.

She has also held senior roles with farm services companies Ruralco, Elders, Agfarm, and InterAg Service and is a Australian Business Research Institute (ABRI) director and on CSIRO's Agriculture and Food Committee advisory committee.

Managing director, Anna Speer, said Ms Coventry would enhance the Greenstock team and help drive its strategy to deepen farmer and feedlot partnerships, drive mutual value and accelerate welfare and sustainability opportunities together.

Sam Ditchfield, who had temporarily filled the sourcing and partnership role, moves to lead Greenstock's lamb and beef livestock sourcing teams' national operations.

One of the biggest of Australia's organic wine businesses, South Australia's Salena Estate Wines, has been placed in administration, falling victim to China's extreme tariff barriers on imports.

The 26-year-old business, established by the Franchitto family in the Riverland near Berri, has been for sale for almost a year after struggling with the loss of its valuable China market.

It also exports mostly red wine to Europe and the US.

Selena, which owns the Twisted Sticks organic range, has 121.5 hectares of certified organic grape plantings as part of almost 200ha of vineyards.

The company will continue to trade while finalising a deed of company arrangement with creditors and looking at further potential sale options.

Big eastern Australia fertiliser and manufacturer and distributor, Incitec Pivot Fertilisers, has launched its own magazine to cover topics ranging from global fertiliser markets to agronomic and research.

Newly appointed IPF interim president, Scott Bowman, said the new Dig Deep magazine would provide IPF staff, supplier and farmer network with relevant and practical information.

"The skill and industry knowledge of our IPF team is unrivalled and we want to share our news and projects as well as broader industry dynamics and developments," he said.

With winter crop planting set to get underway, data-driven insights from IPF's leading Nutrient Advantage laboratory reported in Dig Deep showed phosphorus levels had slipped in the past three years, with nutrient removal above average due to high yielding crops, and denitrification and leaching losses.

Dig Deep also showcased IPF's research and development activities, including potential for enhanced efficiency fertilisers to drive down greenhouse gas emissions.

Australia's largest environmental and carbon markets project developer, GreenCollar, has bought into carbon, energy and sustainability-focused advisory firm, EnergyLink Services.

The strategic partnership aims to increase end-to-end services, particularly to agribusiness, to decarbonise and meet net zero commitments.

"GreenCollar and EnergyLink Services have been working together closely for a long time now," said chief strategy officer, Pierre Josset.

"It made perfect sense to streamline our operations so clients can come to one organisation to develop comprehensive on-farm decarbonisation strategies that maximise value while improving biodiversity, carbon stock and maintaining or increasing productivity."

"Our new partnership will be able to cover everything from emissions baselining to assessment for reduction in energy and carbon footprints, carbon revenue potential, project development, and monitoring and verification of energy savings."

EnergyLink Services brought significant expertise in establishing energy and carbon inventories, recommending energy efficiency improvements, designing fuel switching options and establishing contracts to procure renewable energy for small and medium-sized enterprises.