Ann: Agreement With Egyptian MDF Panelboard Maker, page-5

re: Ann: Agreement With Egyptian MDF Panelboa... Wow, what a review. From your analysis you seem to have done a hell of a lot of homework and what you have presented suggests a very large uphill climb is still ahead. Just like you I cannot see the return. If your numbers are right it's easy to see why the move to Egypt. From my travels through these sorts of countries I would hazard a guess that rural wage workers would earn no more than USD10/day (not/hour) per day. I can also tell you that rural areas do not have much in the way of tractors. Typically, its donkey and cart or in some cases converted rotary hoes with a trailer attached but not much in the way of tractors as we know them. This is because large tractors cannot be justified as the cost of labour is so cheap and the farms are quite small by our standards.

Tractors would not get into any of their plantations as it is only Australia that grows banana's in "lanes". In all the banana regions that I have seen they tend to grow in heavy densities compared to Australian densities. The trees are also quite spindly and no where near as big and heavy looking as the Australian banana stem. This is due to planting densities. So, I think your calculations might be out by about 30% based on this alone. Not that it matters because the production rates that you have presented is mind boggling enough.

I dont have a bagasse price but the price is usually related to its fuel value. 1 tonne of mill-run bagasse can be replaced by 0.173 tonne of fuel oil. So if oil prices are high so too is bagasse and its harder to get. It's one of the key reasons why sugar mills stockpile bagasse to burn for energy in the next sugar season as its generally cheaper than fuel oil or electricity and they can also put excess electricity into the grid and get paid for it.