Australia: The world's largest exporters of malting-grade barley for the brewing industry and barley marketer, ABB Grain, managed to avoid the worst effects of the drought, comfortably beating early earnings forecasts and even eclipsing its 2002 result, according to local media SMH.The addition of the Jossco grain trading business and the sale of an investment helped lift earnings 4.2 % to $15 million. Directors demonstrated some confidence in the immediate outlook by lifting the final dividend from 10.1c to 13.5c a share, raising total distribution for the year to September 30 from 17.1c to 20.5c a share, fully franked.

"The drought conditions experienced had an impact on ABB's business and, in turn, our financial results, with grain deliveries down significantly for the 2002-03 season," chairman Trevor Day said. The fall in deliveries - the value of grain delivered into the company's pools plunged from $621 million to $346 million - resulted in a reduction of grower use of ABB's financial products, he said.

ABB is one of the world's largest exporters of malting-grade barley for the brewing industry and is also a big player in domestic and international feed-grain markets.

Factors offsetting the decline in volumes included the opportunity to sell grain into the eastern states, where there was also a shortage of grain, Mr Day said. The acquisition of Jossco also unexpectedly boosted earnings, he said. The results show Jossco produced a profit of $1.45 million. "This [acquisition] has brought great value to ABB, both financially and in terms of diversification," Mr Day said. He said the outlook for the current crop, now being harvested, was positive. "The crop size for 2003-04 is expected to be of similar size to that of 2001-02."

10 December, 2003