'brewster, your mention of Telstra is rather interesting. but...

'brewster, your mention of Telstra is rather interesting. but did you stop to think - its exactly that control of the market - monopoly - that allowed them to charge premiums for what they sold. And the shareholders benefited from that.'

Your understanding of how the system is currently working is back to front Alpha as evidenced by this little exerpt above. The premiums you are talking about charging for are by the AWB on its grower base for managing the pool. They bear us no transparency in the way they charge us on a per tonne basis nor do they tell us exactly what sales revenue they achieve from their sales. And yes this presents marvellous gap from within which to extract profit for its shareholders which are not all grain growers. You wanna keep Single Desk open up the books! What is there to hide? If you think the AWB can march into these countries and ask what it likes for wheat the most basic of commodities you are off the planet. Its only used to make bread. If it were that simple why were they bribing Iraqi officials and also Pakistani? Some people are so blind.

And you admit it yourself. Grain trade to China and a range of new markets traditionally not serviced by the AWB gives us no real advantage to compete in those markets especially with the dirty bum AWB brings to the table. All the pro Single Deskers always argue the Single Desk is the preferred seller in the market place (quite clearly this was the case because they are negotiable on trade terms $$$$$). So grain trade is evolving to new and I would say more desirable markets. At the moment AWB focuses on muck raking countries clearly because they are corruptable - Iraq, Eqypt, Pakistan.

I'll give you a warning for your new enterprise Alpha! If you have not considered how rising oil and gas prices are going to affect this business model or the probably farmer base you sound like you may be targeting, then you will be unprepared from a business perspective. The face of agriculture is likely to change dramatically from this point forward as our inputs climb directly proportionally with oil and gas price hikes. Number one priority is to breed a high oil line of lupins over here in the West so we have a profitable oilseed that isolates our risk from rising ammonia prices (grain farmings number one input cost). The other dryland crop that is emerging and I'm happy to say the bulk of the work is being done on my farm is with Australian sandalwood which is an oilseed crop also requiring few fossil fuel based inputs. Meat prices are now likely to now enter a period of sustained hardship induced by rising grain prices and a declining consumer ability to pay for 'expensive' protein. Food manufacturers will continue to keep on substituting animal proteins with vegetable proteins to manage the inflationary pressures coming along the food chain. All of the sudden prepared meals start becoming the cheapest options for shoppers. That is why the US has the cheapest food in the food albeit kakka. But price will always win and especially in a stagflationary environment.

I should be charging you Alpha. I've got this industry worked out to a T.