Knowledge searchers Group A2 Source R &R 2/1/13

1)Christmas bonus for Wimmera irrigators

Irrigators in the Wimmera, in western Victoria, are expected to receive payment this week for a big water buyback by the Commonwealth.

The Wimmera irrigators will receive $900 a megalitre for their entitlements, with over $25 million to be paid out in total.

The negotiations have been going on for five years, and the water will be used for environmental flows.

Chair of Grampians Wimmera Mallee Water, Peter Vogel, says it's a nice Christmas bonus for the farmers involved.

"The cheques were printed yesterday," he said.

"They're probably being put into envelopes now and they will go to certified mail today.

"My understanding is the irrigators can pick them up from the relevant post offices tomorrow and Monday."

 

2)IKEA may enter India with cut-down product range, but not without cafés

 

1)    IKEA world’s largest furniture retail chain

2)    It has proposed to settle in India for few product categories and applied to foreign investment promotion board (FIPB)

3)    IKEA wants to open café restaurant and the Swedish meat ball IKEA is known for besides furniture stores.

4)    IKEA investment proposal is for 1.5 billion investments; however FIPB stirred off its proposal for cafes, restaurant & 18 other products from the list of 30 chain products which they wanted to bring to India.

5)    IKEA has 300 stores across 40 countries, does not operate outlets without cafes and restaurants in any other market & the company is waiting for final approval in India.

6)    Among product categories FIPB has stricken off home & office use products, solutions,fittings,furnishings and accessories including stationary, textile products, apparel and fabric toys, books & gadgets, consumer electronics and accessories, food and beverages to be served at IKEA restaurants & Café.

7)    The chain has been permitted to sell furniture products, which its core business, along with knocked-down furniture and accessories related to furniture, cushions, pillows, rugs, mattresses, quilts, curtains, window shades, blinds, electrical and kitchen utensils. Also IKEA cannot offer any finance schemes.

 

3)2012 a 'tough year' for miners, though ASX comes to year end on a high

Despite a surge in the Australian sharemarket and an overall solid performance, one analyst says there's a lot of negative sentiment about the coming year.

The ASX has rallied nearly 16 per cent in the last six months alone, and put on 14 per cent over 2012.

Paterson Securities analyst Andrew Harrington says the ASX has been helped along by a price recovery in our key export commodities, iron ore and coking coal.

Mr Harrington says the market is being driven by sentiment like never before, which he attributes in part to the 24 hour news-cycle.

Although there has been an improvement in the price of some commodities, he says it's a paradox that share prices haven't follow suit.

"We've seen the price of gold far outperform the share prices of the companies that produce gold in the last 12 months," he said.

"The gold price may drop about 10 per cent, but the share price of the companies has dropped 20 per cent.

"What you see with coal, the price has been down about 30 per cent, and the coal equities, the companies that mine, have been down about double that."

Mr Harrington says 2012 was definitely tough for miners, and was typified by mine closures and job losses.

He says he's not so bullish on 2013 as some other market commentators.

"I think contractors, who've been very quick to be cut from operations, may come back to producers with sharper pencils," he said.

"If things continue as they are there's probably going to be continued softness in finance and the stock market, but you've got to remember, if in 2013 the market's up by 14 per cent it's nothing to really cry about.

4)Retailers try to adapt to device-hopping shoppers of the internet age

1)    Many online retailers had visions of holiday shoppers lounging beneath the Christmas tree with their mobile devices in hand, making purchases. The size of average order on tablets particularly ipads, tends to be bigger than on PC’s So retailers poured money and marketing into mobile websites & apps with rich images & they thought , easy checkout.

2)    But while visits to e-commerce sites & apps on tablets & phones have nearly doubled since last year, consumers are more frequently using multiple devices to shop. In many cases they are more comfortable making the final purchase on a computer with its bigger screen & keyboard. So retailers are trying to figure out how to appeal to a shopper who may use a cell phone to research products, a tablet to browse the options & a computer to buy.

3)    The challenges are daunting:

a.     It is technically diff to track consumers as they hop 4m phone to computer to tablet & back again. This means customers who, say, fill shopping carts on their tablets have to do all the work again on their PC’s /other devices.

b.     The biggest obstacle, retailers say, is that the tools used to track shoppers on computers - cookies or bundles of data stored in Web browsers- don’t transfer across devices.

4)    Instead, retailers are figuring out how to sync the experience in other ways, like prompting shoppers to log in on each device. And being able to track people across devices gives retailers more insight into how they shop.

5)    The retailers’ efforts are backed by research. While one quarter of the visits to e-commerce sites occur on mobile devices, only around 15% of purchases do, according to the data from IBM. According to Google, 85% of online shoppers start searching on one device- most often a mobile phone - and make a purchase on another.

6)    At eBags, customers are shopping on their tablets on the evening and returning on their work computers the next day. But eBags has not yet synced the shoppers across devices, so customers must build their shopping carts from scratch if they switch devices. “That is a blind spot with a lot of sites,” said Peter Cobb, co-founder of eBags. “It is a requirement moving forward”.

7)    Logged in users who visit the site using multiple devices is 2.5 times more likely to place an order than those on a single device, according to the company.

8)    Many other e-commerce sites, however, still lack an easy way for shoppers to use different devices.

9)    Amazon.com, Nordstrom, Target, Macy’s and Gap showed items across devices.

5)Elders AGM told sales and profits starting to improve

Elders chairman John Ballard has told shareholders that the board is extremely conscious of its disappointment and frustration following the company's $60.6 million loss last financial year.

But, at the company's annual general meeting in Adelaide, Mr Ballard said the company's focus on debt reduction, and a decision to push more capital into higher-performing areas of the business, were already showing results in the form of improved sales and profits recorded so far in 2012-13.

Mr Ballard says the company's decision to exit forestry is a necessary one that will "remove cash consuming and loss-making assets from Elders' portfolio".

It's been a tough year for Elders' shareholders, with shares worth 60 cents in February trading at just 23 cents today.

6) Boom in world sugar production will challenge Australian growers

Global sugar production is expected to ramp up next year to record levels, presenting a challenge for the Australian cane industry which currently supplies 80 per cent of its sugar to the world market.

China, India, Thailand and even Pakistan are all anticipating higher than average crop levels, meaning they won't be reliant on Aussie imports next year.

Green Pool Commodities analyst Tom McNeil says the high price of sugar in recent years has been an incentive for cane-growing nations to increase production, and now Australia is starting to see the impact.

"The world will be looking at a surplus of around nine million tonnes," he

7)Chinese company buys major fruit and veg supplier

Chinese company Chevalier is finalising a deal to buy Moraitis, Australia's largest fresh produce supplier to supermarkets.

Chevalier group also has interests in construction, cars and cafes.

It's expected to take a 70 per cent stake in the Moraitis business (valued at $200 million), taking over from a private equity investor, and half of the Moraitis family shares.

Michael Worthington, of the Produce Marketers Association of Australia, says Chevalier is likely to mean more fruit and vegetable exports to Asia, and more contracts for growers.

"Moraitis is a very firmly established organisation here," he said.

"They're not going to take any of their operations offshore because their business is built upon their growers who supply them for their customers, and they need supply to work through their system."

  

8)Turkeys grow twice as fast as they used to

Nine months of hard work is starting to pay off for turkey growers who are now facing their busiest time of year.

Col Quast runs a second-generation turkey farms just outside of Tamworth, in north-west New South Wales.

He starts preparing his stock for Christmas when most of us are just getting over the last one, and processes around 60,000 birds a year.

Mr Quast says whole turkeys are still a popular choice for Christmas lunch, with many people swayed by their low fat and cholesterol levels.

"We prepare about 40,000 whole birds throughout the year to sell at Christmas time," he said.

"A lot of planning goes into it. We go through historical data from what we've sold in years gone by and, hopefully, that keeps us in good stead when Christmas comes around.

"We ramp up, to a point, at Christmas time. We tend to process a lot more whole birds this time of year, compared to what we do throughout the year.

"Our livestock numbers will be quite down come December 25."

Mr Quast says the growing time of turkeys has halved in the past 20 years.

"We processed a male, 22-week-old bird here the other day and he came out at 19 kilos. The youngest birds that we process are around that nine weeks of age mark and that will give you a three to four kilo female.

"They're definitely growing faster through genetics and better feed

  

9)Botulism kills stock in western Queensland

The cattle disease botulism has been found in cattle in the Longreach, Aramac and Winton areas.

Biosecurity Queensland says that, while botulism is not a notifiable disease, 20 deaths have occured on one property alone.

Animal biosecurity and welfare Inspector Nicole Restelli says botulism is not common in western Queensland.

"It usually asociated with more arid areas where cattle contract the disease after eating bones."

The disease is caused by a toxin produced by Clostridium Botulinum, which is associated with decaying animal and vegetable matter.

Ms Restelli says the first symptom is paralysis in the hind legs, which quickly moves to the lungs and cattle can die in one to six days.

She says botulism cannot be treated, but vaccination should be a routine practice for all livestock.

Producers should check their stock for symptoms and provide them with a supplent high on protein and phosphorous.

10)Troubled grain processor points finger at rising power prices

Increased electricity prices and the high cost of wheat are being blamed for a NSW grain processor calling in the administrators.

McGrath Nicol has been appointed to try and find a buyer for Tamworth-based Grain Products Australia, which employs 68 people and processes up to 60,000 tonnes of wheat a year.

Managing director Robert Lowndes says the cost of that wheat went up 30 per cent between June and July because of the US drought.

He also blames the carbon tax for the company's financial woes.

"Our electricity costs have gone up $1.2 million on an equivalent usage basis from when we fist did our plans three years ago. That's a 75 per cent increase.

"About $0.7 million of that is due to high network charges. The rest is due to the carbon tax and environmental pass-through costs."

Mr Lowndes says there are interested buyers, but says it's too early to say if the company can be saved.

"It's hard to say at the moment. The idea of the administrator is to try and sell the company.

"We have been trying, we have some people interested, but we haven't been able to complete the sale.

"The administrator may be able to do that, but there's no guarantee of that. Part of their job is they have to readvertise the business, so they will be looking to spread the net for possible buyers."

Mr Lowndes says staffs do have jobs for now.

"They do for the short term, certainly, but how short or long the short term is is uncertain at the moment.

"The receiver is looking at a number of options - do we just continue to run part of the plant, for example. So they'll be working that out over the next week or so.