announcement: future almond developments

Future Almond Developments

The Minister of Revenue, Peter Dutton announced on the 6th February that the ATO has
reconsidered its interpretation of the current laws in relation to Managed Investment Scheme
“MIS” entered into after 30th June 2007. The Government has said they do not intend to
introduce specific arrangements for agri-MIS as they did for forestry. As a result it is likely that
MIS activity in almond projects past June 2007 will be curtailed.

SHV is currently developing approximately 11,700 acres of new almond orchards of which
approximately 10,000 acres relates to an MIS project which has an existing ATO Product
Ruling in place and will not be subject to these changes. Completion of these developments
will increase the area of almonds under our management by 43% to 38,500 acres. In full
production this acreage will produce in excess of 45,000 tonnes of almonds annually compared
with an estimated 11,800 tonnes from the 2007 harvest. We will shortly commence the
construction of a $32 million facility to provide processing capacity for this future crop growth

SHV intends to continue to develop almond orchards in the future and is also currently
investigating the feasibility of developing and managing other nut crops.
The MIS industry has absorbed most of our development capacity in recent years but at the
same time we have developed orchards for various non MIS investors including
superannuation and private equity, to the extent we had available capacity. If MIS
arrangements are no longer available in the future we intend to expand our development
activity in these other areas, however this may take some time to achieve.

Managing Director John Bird said “There is a strong case for the continuation of MIS
arrangements in relation to the almond industry and a full enquiry should be undertaken into
Agri-MIS to determine the economic and social impact on rural and regional Australia” “In
the interim the government should put some transitional arrangements in place to allow the
industry to develop other forms of corporate investment to continue industry growth”.

Australia is a world competitive almond grower with competitive advantage in terms of crop
yield and product quality which allows it to compete effectively in export markets.
Almond farming is highly mechanized and requires scale and capital to maximize efficiencies.
The establishment of corporate farming in recent years has provided this investment
(predominantly through MIS projects) which currently accounts for over 50% of Australia’s
orchards. As a result the Australian almond industry has grown fourfold increasing farm gate
revenue to over $400 million once plantings are in full production and has the potential for
further growth. At the same time the industry development has provided much needed
investment in rural Australia.

Select Harvests, Australia’s largest almond orchard manager has developed 25,000 acres of
almond orchards over the last 7 years in the Robinvale area of Northwest Victoria. This
represents investment of around $400 million and is expected to deliver $200 million in export
dollars when these orchards reach full production. These developments are a major contributor
to the local economy providing around 200 new jobs and ongoing demand for local service
providers.

For further information please contact John Bird 0394743544
8th February 2007