MSA triumph
OPINION: Methane Science Accord, a farmer-led organisation advocating for zero tax on ruminant methane, will be quietly celebrating its first foray into fertiliser co-operative governance.
Ravensdown’s 2021/22 Annual Results, announced yesterday, include an overall Group profit of $95 million.
The results also include an underlying profit of $68 million in the core fertiliser business, before taxation and rebate.
Chairman, Bruce Wills called it one of Ravensdown’s “best ever results”, achieved in a year dominated by volatile pricing and global supply challenges.
Total fertiliser sold was slightly up at 1.22 million tonnes, and revenue at $922 million was up $210 million on last year, reflecting the rising price environment that dominated the year.
“The rapidly rising international prices makes fertiliser hard to budget for our farmers. To help them, Ravensdown focussed on product margins and yielded a FY22 group margin percentage lower than last year.”
Chief executive Garry Diack says Ravensdown’s fundamental belief is that this cash is better in use on-farm than in the company’s hands.
“Consistent with out cooperative values we have positioned the balance sheet for another challenging year in 2023 with $347M of stock in store – providing confidence to customers for spring.”
Ravensdown Shipping Services provided a $26 million boost to the Group’s bottom-line performance.
“The volatility of the market is not going away, and we need the capacity to capitalise on procurement pricing opportunities, and we need to continue investment in technological support to reduce New Zealand’s fertiliser footprint. The need for a capital buffer for the increasing risk a cooperative structure faces, compels a conservative approach to shareholder rebate for 2022,” says Diack.
Given this year’s performance and next year’s challenges, a shareholder rebate of $25 per tonne has been declared.
The year at a glance
Meat co-operative, Alliance has met with a group of farmer shareholders, who oppose the sale of a controlling stake in the co-op to Irish company Dawn Meats.
Rollovers of quad bikes or ATVs towing calf milk trailers have typically prompted a Safety Alert from Safer Farms, the industry-led organisation dedicated to fostering a safer farming culture across New Zealand.
The Government has announced it has invested $8 million in lower methane dairy genetics research.
A group of Kiwi farmers are urging Alliance farmer-shareholders to vote against a deal that would see the red meat co-operative sell approximately $270 million in shares to Ireland's Dawn Meats.
In a few hundred words it's impossible to adequately describe the outstanding contribution that James Brendan Bolger made to New Zealand since he first entered politics in 1972.
Dawn Meats is set to increase its proposed investment in Alliance Group by up to $25 million following stronger than forecast year-end results by Alliance.
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