MARKET links have been the secret to much of Northern Australia’s successes in the cropping world, attendees to the Northern Australia Food Futures roadshow in Hughenden last Thursday were told.
The forum was put on by the Northern Territory Farmers Association to share what it sees as a very positive diversifying option for Queensland cattlemen, and was the only opportunity to hear the group’s message in the state.
In the lead-up to the biennial conference in Darwin in April 2016, other roadshows are being held in Katherine, Alice Springs, Kununurra and Broome.
As well as securing a good market for product, NT Farmers spokesman Ian Baker told the 40-strong crowd that it was important not to get too big too quickly.
Mr Baker wasn’t a fan of large government schemes, quoting a $200 million annual turnover from the various farming ventures operating in the Territory, compared with a $40m turnover by Ord River scheme participants.
“Much of our people’s success came from starting small. There are too many models for getting big quickly, but we think it’s important to give yourself time to learn,” he told the participants at Hughenden.
One of biggest impediments to nth Aus devt is silo approach by government depts - a common theme of speakers at Hughenden Food Futures #QCL
Longreach drought often in media but Flinders graziers doing it v tough too. Scene south of Hughenden today #QCL pic.twitter.com/kblktB251W
Getting cash to start irrigated ag in NQ hard, Hughenden Food Futures roadshow told. Banks place no value on DA, all risk is with producer.
It also gave people a chance to meet capital outlay costs, one of the downfalls of past failures.
He quoted a number of success stories – former Ord Valley melon pickers who moved to Mataranka and now have a $12m turnover and have expanded to Broome and Gilgandra, a Vietnamese refugee who has a 12-apartment property portfolio in Darwin despite starting with no English, no money and no government assistance, and Ord Valley chia crop pioneer Rob Boshammer, one of the world’s largest producers of the health-food plant.
In most cases they were financed by someone in the market who wanted their product.
He was backed up by fellow NT Farmers speaker Greg Owens, who said many of the successful farmers had looked to what the Asian market wanted.
Much of it was melons, but not ones traditionally thought of. There are hundreds of hectares of okra growing in the Northern Territory, much of it for markets in Sydney and Melbourne.
The other big seller is fodder crops that support the live export industry.
Flinders River Agricultural Precinct chairman Brendan McNamara and NT Farmers Association president Ian Baker oversaw the informative irrigated agriculture roadshow.
“There’s now a lot of vertical integration going on,” he said.
“A lot of people are looking to extend chains, things such as growing mangos in three different climate zones.”
They were also looking at high value crops when faced with transport costs in the realm of $200/tonne to Sydney or $300/tonne to Melbourne.
All 10,000 hectares of farmed land in the Northern Territory is irrigated by groundwater, according to Mr Baker.
He said future commodity development would probably be more dependent on surface water.
The 2016 conference will be concentrating on developing pathways with investors, especially after the 2014 event received a lot of interest from Brazilian, Chinese and Indonesian groups.
“Our linkages with Brazil, India and Indonesia are stronger in northern Australia than they are with southern Australia,” Mr Baker said.
“Twenty years ago the cattlemen in Brazil decided to go into cropping – you are doing the same here, so we have big synergies with them.”
Mr Baker stressed that although momentum to develop the north had increased in recent years, it was important for those investing and planting to have input to how it might happen.
“Politicians don’t have a lot of meat on the bone,” he said. “They’ve got the plan but not how to make it happen. We have to have more say in that.”
Flinders shire mayor Greg Jones said there had been a lot of talk about developing northern Australia in recent months, which had to be capitalised on while the government had given the go-ahead.