Australia and Australians14 Jun 2019 17:51
After the meeting, I spoke to Thomas Staley, who was perfectly charming, and not 'bored' at all, as intimated by some here. I was curious to know why, given the proportion of Australians at senior level on the BoD, and also the heavy involvement of Hancock and Gina Reinhart, why Australia has never (as far as I am aware) featured in any of the marketing, distribution and agronomy testing discussions. In fact, it has been omitted entirely on some of the global maps they have presented. After all, I'd have thought they would be eager for their own great nation to partake in the enormous product benefits? He explained that Australia is a hard market to crack in any area, and farmers there have very firmly established practices of using fertilisers which are heavily phosphate based. However, he then went on to say that they do in fact already have plans to start marketing and testing etc in Australia, so watch this space.
As an aside, he actually (tongue in cheek I think) apologised to me for being Australian. He also said Chris Fraser argues that he is English, not Aussie! (wonder if you have to be British to get a knighthood?)
PS I enjoyed listening to Chris' presentation yesterday, and although I'll always be confused about the financing arrangements, I did come away feeling a little more enthused.