Ag Policy, Ports & Cotton

April 27 – During breakfast we spoke with Charlie McElhone, Manager of Commerce and Trade with the National Farmers Federation, and Grant Pettrie, an Agricultural Counselor with the U.S. Embassy, about agricultural policy and trade.

Charlie explained how NFF works on behalf of farmers in Australia by promoting policy, trade, and sharing information on technological advancements, similar to American Farm Bureau. With a population of only 20,000 million, Australia is dependent on their export market and very interested in international trade. Grant said the Australia/U.S. Free-Trade Agreement signed in 2005 has greatly increased the amount of trade between the two countries. He also discussed the development of the Global Research Alliance by New Zealand to examine greenhouse gas emissions.

After the breakfast talk, we headed to the Canberra airport to catch a plane north to Brisbane. I knew Australia was a large country, but it surprised me to learn it is almost exactly the same size as the U.S. To drive from Canberra to Brisbane is close to 800 miles and would've taken more than 14 hours!

Upon arrival in Brisbane, we took a driving tour of the Port of Brisbane. The Port of Brisbane is Queensland's largest container port. It has 10 container and general cargo berths and four Deep-water bulk berths at the mouth of the river, as well as five wet-bulk and seven-dry bulk general cargo berths further up the river. Their largest exports are coal, refined oil, meat products, cereals, iron, steel and cotton.

From the port, we stopped at Dunavant Enterprises. Dunavant is one of the largest cotton merchandisers in the world based in Memphis, Tenn. In Australia, they operate three ginning facilities and provide a comprehensive marketing services to cotton growing regions. In addition to ginning facilities, Dunavant Enterprises has integrated warehouse and rail facilities at each gin site providing excellent ginning, warehouse and transport options for growers. As we've heard from almost everyone we've met with during our trip, water is an important issue for the cotton industry. Gordon Cherry, Managing Director at Dunavant, told us 90% of the cotton fields are irrigated due to the drought that began in 2002.

The evening was free to shop, dine and explore Brisbane. About half the group took a water taxi to a well-known local restaurant at the Regatta Hotel for a steak and seafood dinner.