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March 18, 2003
The increasing popularity of
Mexican style food, boutique beers and lingering consumer fears
about genetically modified crops are all working in favour of
Australiašs maize industry, a minnow compared to the United
States whale.
Tony Cogswell, director of Forbes grain business Lachlan
Commodities, told the recent Fifth Australian Maize Conference
in Toowoomba there were specialty market opportunities in Asia
for Australian maize, despite limited quantities.
"Lachlan Commodities has been supplying identity preserved, GMO
free maize to Asia since 1996, predominantly to Japan and the
Republic of South Korea but also to Taiwan, Malaysia and Sri
Lanka. We also have markets in New Zealand and the Pacific
Islands," Mr Cogswell said.
"Like Australians, Asians are developing a taste for corn-based
Mexican food and breweries there are using maize in some of
their beers.
"Overall Japan imports 16.5 million metric tonnes of maize and
South Korea 10 million metric tonnes, most of it for stock feed
and starch production.
"The specialty markets open up for us firstly because of
Australiašs non-GMO status but also because we can offer maize
which is identity preserved, variety specific, with nil blending
and contamination, of consistent processing quality and
delivered at the quality of product buyers want.
"We are also one of the few countries that can get government
certification of non-GMO status without a lot of testing."
Mr Cogswell said while the relative isolation of Australiašs
different maize producing areas sometimes helped guarantee the
identity of particular crops, it did involve higher transport
costs.
Unlike the United States, where river barges could move 20,000
and even 30,000 tonnes at a time for around US$6 a tonne, the
Australian maize industry paid anything from $25 to $40 a tonne
for road transport to port.
Lack of sufficient production in any one area meant a ship might
have to call at four ports to make up a bulk shipment of 30,000
to 50,000 tonnes, at great cost in demurrage and port charges.
Another handicap for Australian maize exporters was the high
cost of finance and the volatility of the Australian dollar, as
most international trade was conducted in US dollars.
Lachlan Commodities sometimes owned grain for up to 14 months
before shipment to guarantee supply. The company looked for a 12
months commitment to produce from growers before the shipping
date.
"Because of the size of the Australian industry we work to
pre-planned exports," Mr Cogswell said.
" On the positive side, because such a high percentage of the
Australian maize crop is irrigated, we can supply consistent
quality and volumes.
"Because of our high level of
imports from our Asian trading partners we have access to weekly
shipping services and plenty of container availability.."
Mr Cogswell said Australiašs maize production had grown
remarkably over the last six to eight years, from 240,000 tonnes
to around 530,000 tonnes. Interestingly, back in 1890, NSW alone
produced 180,000 tonnes of maize.
His messages to the industry, if it wanted to boost exports,
were:
- producers need to concentrate
on varieties offering multi-market opportunities, domestic and
export;
- export orders can be lost
because varieties and/or product are spread too widely;
- growers need to communicate
with traders before planting, and
- maize needs to be identity
preserved, from farm through transport to storage.
Mr Cogswell said general issues
for the industry to address included elimination of some
variation between domestic and export standards, and to come up
with an internationally recognised supply chain system to
enhance acceptance by overseas countries.
Lachlan Commodities was moving towards an analytical screening
system for maize from each of its supplying growers testing
for aflatoxin, heavy metals and organo chemicals.
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