agm update

As promised here are some updates from the AGM.

I won't go over the presentation and Chairman & MD's address as they are there online for all to see.

There were a lot of questions relating to the Western Australian orchards as you would expect given the write downs and the like.

Basically the write down occurred because the start up costs were higher than anticipated, eg extra bores had to be drilled to supply sufficient water to get the orchards going. A review is under way so and they are awaiting the results of the first harvest in 2013 to get a clearer idea of how things will go. The indications are that they would expect to turn a profit on the orchards, but of course that all comes down to what yields and quality they get.

One option for the WA crop is to relocate a portion of the Kyndalyn Park hulling & cracking plant to WA to remove the hull and export them.

The WA orchards are NOT up for sale, but of course everything has a price and if an attractive offer comes up things may change.

Just on sales, the food brands, Sunsol, Nu-Vit, etc are no longer up for sale. Some good offers were made however it was felt that the company can realise a better return by retaining the brands with some improvements.

In regards to the product recall, after a number of questions, they finally came up with a figure on the cost of the recall as being under $150k. The majority of the product was fine, just a precautionary recall so after testing they were able to re-sell most of the almonds at an increased profit as the almond price had increased since the recall.

The current almond price is US$6.60 per kg for the non-pareil variety (50% of the orchards). Recent yields from mature orchards have tended to be in the 1 to 1.2 metric tonne/acre. 2013 crop is hoped to be about 15,000 tonnes with 4,000 tonnes to be sold domestically and the rest exported.

Besides the angst over the Western Australian write downs there was a bit of angst regarding the performance of the board, their accountability and communication. Only two of the board acknowledged during the meeting of having gone to WA to check on the progress of the orchards there.

There was also some ill feeling regarding the long term incentive plan for the MD with a push to have the performance rights deferred until the share price rises to $2 and stays above that level for at least 3 months. Apparently performance rights to acquire shares in the company for no consideration is not a "free gift".