Moora Citrus Orchard Vision of Exporting to China

Shane Kay planted his Moora Citrus orchard near Dandaragan a decade ago with a vision to export to China.

This season he became one of the first WA orange growers to achieve that vision after the State Government granted access to Chinese markets for citrus growers.
“It is something that has taken many years to set up because of the quarantine protocols,” Mr Kay said.

“China is a difficult market to access but they are loving our fruit and the prices are quite good.”
He said the Perth market was a priority but growers produced more than enough fruit for local consumption.
“Our first focus is supplying the local market and anything extra will be directed to the export market as volumes grow,” he said.

Mr Kay, manager at Moora Citrus, and Gavin Foord, of Badgingarra’s AGRIfresh orchard, were the first to capitalise on the export opportunity.

Between them they sent more than 500 tonnes of navel oranges to China and South-East Asia.
“We are looking at ramping that up tenfold in the next three to five years,” Mr Foord said.

“We sell our premium fruit to China, but we get a return on it that more than covers the extra expenses.”

Mr Foord said growers were looking to sell into several other Asian markets.

“China has been a focus, but we are also looking to Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong,” he said.
“Korea and Thailand are also potential markets.”

WA Agriculture Minister Ken Baston said the export milestone would boost the industry’s competitiveness.

“Having established these markets, the producers expect to increase the volume of fruit exported over the next few years as significant new plantings come into full production,” he said.

“Building on the success of these trailblazing growers, the government is working with other WA citrus growers interested in exporting their fruit.

“The work included a delegation of producers on visits to markets in China to meet buyers, identify any issues, discuss market opportunities and learn more about export protocols.”

WA growers produce about 15,000 tonnes of citrus a year, valued about $15 million.
Nationally, growers export 130,000 tonnes of citrus each year.

Moora - Dandaragan Accommodation

Ryan Potatoes in Dandaragan

Ryan Potatoes: A Western Australian Family owned and operated business since 1958 has expanded into Dandaragan.

Supplier to major retailers, supermarkets, fresh food grocers and processors, Ryan Potatoes have been providing Australia some of the finest Potatoes grown in WA for over the last 50 years.

EARLY DAYS
With the help of his father, they purchased some fertile land with an abundant water supply and went about learning the art of growing potatoes. In the early days, the potatoes were hand picked into 65kg sacks and transported to Collins Siding (Pemberton) to be transported by rail to Perth.

GROWING THE FAMILY BUSINESS
After finishing school, Tony’s three sons joined the Business which then land was purchased to support the extra family members. As the Business grew, a decision was made to process the potatoes on their farm. A washing and packing plant was built to provide a fresher product to our customers.

To provide fresh potatoes 12 months of the year a farm north of Perth in Dandaragan was purchased to grow Potatoes in the winter months.
This farm complements the Pemberton farm which grows through the Summer months.

QUICK TURNAROUND
The Ryan Family prides themselves on providing the quickest harvest to plate of all Western Australian growers. Ryan Potatoes have the ability to grow, wash, pack & sell direct to the buyer. The combination of Pemberton and Dandaragan growing provides high quality fresh potatoes all year round.

Ryan family potatoes are a proud WA family business. We have 9 family members involved in the running of the business and provide employment to numerous members of local communities.

Redgum Village Moora - Dandaragan

Potash Doubles Dinner Hill Mine Life in Dandaragan

Potash West doubles Dinner Hill mine life in Dandaragan
September 30, 2015

Revised scoping work at Potash West’s Dinner Hill phosphate prospect in Western Australia has doubled the expected mine life to 40 years and improved net present value by 14%

Revised scoping work at Potash West’s Dinner Hill phosphate prospect in Western Australia has doubled the expected mine life to 40 years and improved net present value by 14%

Revised scoping work at Potash West’s (ASX:PWN) Dinner Hill phosphate prospect in Western Australia has doubled the expected mine life to 40 years and improved net present value by 14%.

Dinner Hill’s pre-tax NPV now totals A$378 million, compared to the previous estimate of $331 million.
The life extension and value growth delivered by the scoping study have encouraged Potash West to immediately begin a prefeasibility study including new metallurgical testwork.

So far, an average mine production rate of 3.8 million tonnes per annum to produce an average of 400,000 tonnes per annum of  single superphosphate (SSP) over the 40-year life has been considered. SPP is a versatile and widely marketable fertiliser.

A fall in global oil costs and a weakening of the Australian dollar since the Dinner Hill’s previous financial assessment have contributed to a number of more streamlined metrics at the project.
Beyond the doubled mine life and increased NPV, these improvements include a 10% drop in operating costs to $190 per tonne of product and a 24% rise in EBITDA to $52 million per annum.

Capital costs for the project remained at $205 million, including $66 million for the process plant. New plans to install a sulphur burning acid plant (along with lower oil prices) have substantially contributed to the lower operating cost estimates.

The move to revisit Dinner Hill’s scoping results was based on a 108% increase in June for the project’s resource to 250 million tonnes grading 2.9% phosphorus pentoxide.

This was followed by confirmation in July that the company had raised $1.8 million in an oversubscribed placement ensuring funding for the advancement of Dinner Hill. Although a significant portion of these funds is now expected to remain outstanding, the reduction of the raising will have no impact on the project’s development progress.

Dinner Hill – which is part of the larger Dandaragan Trough project north of Perth – has already demonstrated positive metallurgical and processing results, with an overall recovery of 61.3%.

Flotation and magnetic separation recovers 88% of the phosphate from the flotation feed to the phosphate concentrate and acidulation recovers 100% of the phosphate from the phosphate concentrate to the SSP product.
Dinner Hill is expected to be in operation by 2019.
Germany sale offers tighter focus

Potash West will be able to concentrate attention more directly on Dandaragan and Dinner Hill after finalising a recent move to offload its prospective but less developed South Harz potash project in Germany.

The deal will result in the sale of the company’s East Exploration subsidiary, which has a 55% in South Harz, to Arunta Resources (ASX:AJR). Arunta’s subsidiary Davenport Pty Ltd will hold the project and plans to list on the Australian Securities Exchange subject to raising at least $4 million and meeting regulatory requirements.

Upside for Potash West includes continued exposure to a growing project via the acquisition of about a 28% stake in Davenport, assuming Davenport realises a $4 million IPO. This newly listed company will be a more focused developer for the property.

The transaction will also bring with it the funds needed to complete a South Harz drill program targeting verification holes on the projects’ Kullstedt licence. The program, along with updates of historical records, is aimed at defining a JORC resource in the area.

Potash mineralisation has been demonstrated in relatively shallow depth of between 500-600 metres to the north of Kullstedt.
Analysis

Optimisation of Dinner Hill’s financial metrics, even at this early stage, represents a meaningful enhancement of the project’s prospectivity, especially considering the considerable opex savings in combination with a long extension of mine life.

The new project mine life indicates that expansion options exist at the site as the current plan uses only 64% of the mine plan resource defined to date.

Dinner Hill’s great infrastructure, already in place, and close proximity to bulk ports allows a low capital start-up and low logistical and operating costs.

The South Harz sale is a win for Potash West as it allows for a more concerted focus on development of the project’s Kullstedt area, which the company will benefit from via its interest in Davenport. The sale also allows the company to more fully dedicate its efforts on Dinner Hill pre-feasibility work.

The global fertiliser business is expected to value US$172 billion this year. 

South Harz and Dinner Hill projects are both large projects, providing diversity in commercialisation potential with different end-markets and potentially different investors.

Potash West also stands to benefit from a 21% interest in mineral processing technology company Lepidico Pty Ltd, which has recently achieved some major milestones in its bid to profit from increasingly commercial trends in long-life lithium-ion batteries.

Redgum Village Dandaragan

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Malaysian Palm Oil Grower Buys Dandaragan Farms

One of Malaysia's largest palm-oil plantation firms is quietly buying up farmland in Western Australia, including Dandaragan. 
At a time when low prices and rising wages in Indonesia are squeezing profits for makers of the commodity, which is used to make margarine and cookies.

Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd. wants to invest in a large area of land in Dandaragan, about 100 miles north of Perth, said Simon Wilding, director of real-estate broker VNW Independent.

Mr. Wilding said that he expects to complete a deal with the Malaysian Company’s Australian subsidiary, KLK Farms Pty Ltd. in the next couple of weeks, adding to several big land deals by the company in Australia's biggest grain producing state in the past year.

In total, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd. has built up a land bank of around 26,000 hectares in Australia— enough to cover an area at least three times the size of Manhattan—according to company documents and investment agents.

"They're looking at a lot more country in the area," said Mr. Wilding in a phone interview.
The expansion in Australia comes as profits from Kuala Lumpur Kepong's main palm oil business are under threat. Indonesia's government in December put forward plans to raise wages for workers in oil-palm plantations by up to 50% this year, in a move that could add further pressure to the company's already strained profit margins.
Weaker palm oil prices and higher wages pushed the Kuala Lumpur Kepong's net profit down 23% to 1.21 billion ringgits (US$390 million) in 2012.

Lim Poh Poh, Kuala Lumpur Kepong's head of corporate communications, said the company's expansion was to "derive economies of scale" from its Australian assets, but declined to provide specifics on its total land holdings. Ms. Lim said its Australian farms contributed just 0.3% of profits last financial year. Kuala Lumpur Kepong, or KLK, was founded at the turn of the last century and runs a vast estate covering 250,000 hectares across Indonesia and Malaysia.

The Malaysian company's expansion in Australia comes amid intense debate over the regulation of foreign investment in land.
The issue came to a head last year when Treasurer Wayne Swan approved the sale of giant cotton farm Cubbie station to a Chinese-led consortium in September, provoking a political backlash to the deal. Opponents fear international companies will exploit Australia's natural resources without regard for its ecology, while advocates argue that foreign capital will be vital to meet the more-than 1 trillion Australian dollars (US$1.03 trillion) of investment Australia needs to become Asia's food bowl.

Soil Restoration in Dandaragan

Kuala Lumpur Kepong "are now large owners of farmland far in excess of any Chinese activity yet they generally fly under the radar," said Gordon Verall, managing director of farmland investment adviser Corporate Agriculture Australia.

Tony Abbott, leader of Australia's coalition party in opposition, has proposed stricter oversight of foreign investment in the agricultural sector. He wants to lower the threshold for scrutinizing foreign land purchases to A$15 million and investment in farm-related companies to A$53 million, from the existing A$244 million threshold.

The latest land deals follow a steady expansion in Australia over the past year for Kuala Lumpur Kepong. The company bought 3,600 hectares near York, 60 miles east of Perth, in August, said Geoff Collins, managing director of Farming Management Services, who oversees properties for KLK Farms.
The company's accounts in the year through September 30 show it also bought 13,970 hectares of farmland for crops and sheep around Northampton for MYR83.1 million in 2012.

"If it weren't for the foreign investment at the moment then land prices would significantly decrease and farmers that currently own property would lose equity," said Mr. Collins in an interview.

Redgum Village Dandaragan

Huge Increase In Size of Warro Gas Field

Huge increase in size of Warro gas field at Badgingarra in the Dandaragan Shire expected to spark new valuations on Transerv

Warro tight gas field is located in blocks EP 407 and EP 321 onshore, within the Perth Basin in Dandaragan Western Australia.

It is one of the biggest undeveloped onshore gas projects in the region. The field covers an area of 7,000ha and is located at a depth of 3,750m.
It is owned jointly by Transerv (35%) and Alcoa (65%). Transerv is the operator of the field.

The Warro field has the potential to supply more than ten percent of Western Australia's gas consumption. Natural gas makes up nearly half of the energy supply of the region. The project is also located close to main transmission pipelines enabling easy gas transportation.

The eagerly-anticipated drilling program at Transerv Energy’s (ASX: TSV) Warro gas field in WA has reached fever pitch following this week’s revelation that the size of the field had doubled on the back of the latest strong results.
Analysts are thought to be further upgrading their valuations on Transerv after it announced that an independent assessment of Warro, already Australia’s biggest onshore gas field, had increased the estimated gas in place by up to 220 per cent.

The reports highlighted the potential of the current drilling program to unlock Warro’s huge commercial potential by establishing that the gas can flow without producing too much water.

The new assessment by consultants RISC Advisory indicates a contingent resource (low estimate) of 2.4 trillion cubic feet of gas in-place, which is approximately double previous estimates.
This category is deemed to be the lowest-risk portion of the resource and would be the basis of any project development.

The RISC assessment increased the total estimate to 11.6 trillion cubic feet, a rise of over 15 per cent.
The new resource estimates follow the two latest highly successful wells which were drilled at Warro as part of the program being funded by Alcoa of Australia.

Alcoa can earn up to 65 per cent of the project.

RISC review highlighted the immense potential for Warro – already the biggest undeveloped onshore gas field in Australia – to become a major player in the State’s domestic gas market.

Redgum Village

Dandaragan Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Zagro Australia Pty Ltd (business name: Dandaragan Estate)

Origins - The Dandaragan Estate Story

The pristine environment of Australia goes hand in hand with its strong reputation for the production of quality food and agriculture.
The wine industry has been the most recent to experience the impact of Australia's great natural assets and it was only a matter of time before Australia entered the large and established olive oil market.
Olive growing is now the largest new horticultural industry in Australia.

Dandaragan Estate oils come from olives grown in the Moore River region in Western Australia, where olives have been grown since 1846.
The Moore River region has a Mediterranean type climate ideal for growing premium quality olives, and Dandaragan Estate grows and harvests its own olives for blending into its award winning Ultra Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oils.
Dandaragan Estate sells only the finest in ultra-premium extra virgin olive oils.

Each year the harvest provides the raw materials for four master blends;

• Delicate, 
• Fruity, 
• Robust and 
• Chef’s Choice. 

These blends are created by one of Australia's leading blenders to give you the choice between:

• Delicate blend - a beautifully sweet versatile oil
• Fruity blend - imparts more olive fruit characters
• Robust blend - distinctive characteristics ideal for adding flavour.
• Chef’s Choice - a restaurant blend

The Delicate, Fruity and Robust blends are sold in stores in 375ml and 500ml bottles and some stores stock 4 litre tins.

Redgum Village Dandaragan

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