Sale of GrainCorp another blow to independence

Vanguard June 2013 p. 5
Duncan B.

(Above: GrainCorp silos att Geelong)

The management of GrainCorp has accepted a $3 billion takeover bid from the US commodity giant Archer Daniels Midland.

This means that another major Australian-owned grain handler will fall into foreign hands. (The deal is subject to approval by the Foreign Investment Review Board.) This takeover means that 75% of eastern Australian grain production and 90% of Australia’s bulk grain exports will be controlled from North America.

GrainCorp has a 30% national market share, 79 permanent grain storage sites, 200 other sites, seven out of the nine east coast grain export ports and a gigantic proportion of the east coast grain handling network.

Archer Daniels Midland is one of the biggest grain businesses in the world. ADM’s processing and sales stretch across 160 countries, with 265 processing plants converting grain into food, animal feeds, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, industrial products and energy. Last year ADM’s net sales accounted for $US87 billion.

Grain growers have expressed concerns about the possible effects of the takeover. The National Party has come out strongly against the takeover, saying that it is not in the national interest. They have called on the Foreign Investment Review Board and the Treasurer to reject ADM’s bid for GrainCorp.

The only major Australian-owned grain handler left after the sale of GrainCorp will be Western Australia’s Co-operative Bulk Handling, which dominates the grain trade in WA, and has a national market share of about 30%. How long before the vultures start circling CBH?

Multinationals leave growers for dead

SPC Ardmona, which is owned by Coca Cola Amatil, recently informed over 60 fruit growers that the company would no longer be taking their fruit, blaming cheap imported fruit. Many of the growers had decades-long contracts with SPC Ardmona, and are faced with having to bulldoze three quarters of a million fruit trees.

Ten years ago, SPC Ardmona took 50,000 tonnes of peaches and 60,000 tonnes of pears. Now they take about 11,000 tonnes of each fruit.

A rally attended by over one thousand people was held in Shepparton to support Australian farmers and their products (see article page 12).

Meanwhile US multinational agribusiness firm Simplot has told more than 20 Tasmanian pea growers that they will not be taking any more peas for processing this year. This leaves these growers with no market for their crops.

Simplot has annual sales of over $US 5 billion per year, and owns well-known brands such as Bird’s Eye, Leggos, Chiko and Edgell.

A common thread runs through these three stories. In each case Australian farmers are at the mercy of foreign-owned corporations for their livelihoods, which can be taken away without warning. This is another reason for all Australians to support the concept of an Australia free from the domination of foreign corporations. Agriculture in an independent Australia would be carried out for the benefit of producers and consumers alike.