Today
Victoria secures $50m SVG agtech venture fund
The fund, backed by US-based SVG, will fast-track technologies to help farmers maintain food production through national disasters.
- Hannah Wootton
This Month
Flight ban would be ‘biggest blow’ to Indonesia ties since live exports
Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has detailed a $14 million package to help stop the spread of livestock diseases from Indonesia, PNG and East Timor.
- Georgie Moore
Varroa mite could lead to interstate bee shortage, grower warns
Almond grower Select Harvests says it is “increasingly likely” there will be a bee shortage in South Australia and Victoria following the varroa mite outbreak in NSW.
- Gus McCubbing
State Nationals want arrivals from Indonesia to have their shoes sterilised
Foot and mouth disease, which is highly contagious and affects cattle, sheep, goats and pigs, could cost the economy up to $80 billion if it entered Australia.
- Gus McCubbing
Ag minister heads to Indonesia over foot and mouth disease
Farmers are also urging travellers from Bali to throw out their thongs in case they are contaminated with foot and mouth disease.
- Liv Casben
Wet weather sours citrus grower Costa’s winter harvest
The extended period of rain across most of Australia’s east coast has claimed a fresh victim, oranges, as growing conditions deteriorate.
- Lucas Baird
Bruce Dixon to ride away with Lloyd Williams’ Macedon Lodge
Victorian businessman Bruce Dixon is set to rein in one of the country’s top thoroughbred training farms.
- Anthony Macdonald, Sarah Thompson and Kanika Sood
Foot and mouth disease a clear and present danger, say farmers
Victorian dairy farmer Alex Robertson says foot and mouth disease entering Australia would send a shock through supermarket shelves across the country.
- Gus McCubbing
Biosecurity delays fuel importers’ costs
Biosecurity checks of goods shipped into Australia are taking up to a month to complete as inspectors struggle with staff shortages and new disease outbreaks.
- Jenny Wiggins
More than 15 million bees culled as NSW authorities track mite spread
More than 15 million bees have been culled across 31 infected premises in NSW as authorities said they were confident they can contain the varroa mite.
- Liv Casben
- Exclusive
- Carbon challenge
Energy retailers face new oversight amid wholesale crunch
Energy retailers will have to reveal commercially sensitive financial information and provide weekly information about customers amid concern more retailers may collapse.
- Colin Packham
NSW floods leave crops unplanted, seeds rotting in the ground
NSW farmers say there is “a disaster unfolding” as floods are stopping them from sowing broadacre grains such as wheat and canola this season.
- Hannah Wootton and Gus McCubbing
Canaccord’s turn to Cooke up a Tassal stake
Cooke Inc has tapped a fellow Canadian to help reel in Australia’s $1 billion salmon producer Tassal Group.
- Anthony Macdonald, Sarah Thompson and Kanika Sood
- Exclusive
- Food sustainability
Lettuce for all: how vertical farming will plug supply chain shortages
Stacked Farm has raised $56 million in a debt and equity raise, which will accelerate the construction of its first commercial scale vertical farm.
- Yolanda Redrup
Cafe owner grows his own mushrooms to stave off rising food prices
With mushroom prices surging to almost $100 per box, Bondi cafe owner Guy Turland has started growing his own mushrooms.
- Campbell Kwan
Why food will be a bigger crisis than energy ever will be
Helped by bumper harvests, Robert Spurway has quietly turned around the fortunes of the grain and edible oils business in the past two years. Now he has a new mission.
- James Thomson
June
ASX Agribusiness Index kicks off on Friday
A new specialist ASX index is set to boost investment and visibility of the booming agricultural sector, but the benchmark means more work for fund managers
- Elouise Fowler
States shut their borders to NSW bees in race to defeat varroa spread
A bee expert has supported moves by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to ban NSW bees after a deadly parasite was detected in Newcastle.
- Gus McCubbing
NSW in ‘bee lockdown’ to save honey industry from foreign mites
Authorities have been forced to destroy 600 beehives following the detection of a parasite that one expert says could cost the industry $70 million a year.
- Gus McCubbing
Salmon group Tassal in a sweet spot, says CEO
Mark Ryan has been running the Tasmanian group since 2003 and says it’s in a neat position now with heavy capital spending behind it.
- Simon Evans
