Ann: Half Yearly Report and Accounts , page-11

Anyone heard any news on the vote for the Hillston Orchards?

The following is the latest update that I can find but it is prior to the vote:

Almond trees bloom in WA
Sandra Godwin
February 24, 2010


AUSTRALIA'S biggest almond grower has regained the momentum lost during the Timbercorp collapse, reviving plans to establish new groves in Western Australia.

Select Harvests chief executive John Bird said the land, water and trees were now "in place" for the first plantings of 810ha of almonds on the Dandaragan plateau, north of Perth, this winter - a year later than originally planned.

Mr Bird said the company, which had obtained licenses to extract 22,000 megalitres of irrigation water, intended to develop up to 4000ha of new groves in Western Australia during the next three to five years.

The rising cost of irrigation water in Victoria and NSW was limiting development, and Western Australia offered a reliable cost-effective water supply and entry costs lower than replacement costs in the Murray-Darling basin, he said.

Select Harvests also has offered $25 million to Seven Fields for 1619ha of orchards and 6622 megalitres of permanent water near Robinvale, and will buy or lease orchards at Hillston, NSW, established by Rural Funds Management in 2006 and leased to Great Southern.

The acquisitions have yet to be approved by grower investors in the projects, which were operated as managed investment schemes until last year when the Seven Fields project was declared insolvent and Great Southern went into receivership.

Mr Bird said it had been a very challenging year.

"(But) we have ensured the productive health of the former Timbercorp orchards, secured a new three-year management contract with their new owners, Olam, and have successfully transitioned the orchards into new ownership," he said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange last week.

The company announced a net profit for the six months to December 31 last year of $10.1 million, 1.3 per cent higher than the previous year.

Rain earlier this month interrupted harvesting of this season's crop, but caused no damage.

Mr Bird said they expected to harvest 28,000 tonnes of almonds this year - despite reducing irrigation.

This would be 25 per cent more than last year's 22,300 tonnes.

http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2010/02/24/160141_horticulture.html