August 7, 2015

Following Gina Rinehart’s recent acquisition of Fossil Downs for $30 million, Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo Group has expanded its pastoral interests with the purchase of two cattle stations in Western Australia – the Brickhouse and Milinya stations for an undisclosed amount.

These acquisitions bring the group’s cattle herd to near than 30,000 head, and expands its total pastoral holdings to exceed one million hectares.

“At the end of the day the business we are running is a beef business,” said John Hartman, head of agribusiness for the Minderoo Group. “…so we’ve obviously got our production assets but we’ve also got our abattoir facility in Harvey [Harvey Beef in WA’s south-west], the largest beef processor in Western Australia.”

Mr. Hartman goes on to add that the group will be seeking opportunities to invest in water infrastructure throughout the state with the goal of increasing the state’s cattle herd.

“What we need to do as a state, as an industry, is really work on how we develop the supply chain to increase the state’s herd as a whole, increase the productive capacity of what we already have.”

Head of agribusiness for advisory firm, FTI Consulting, Ben Waters states that land prices have not yet caught up with beef prices, making cattle land very attractive to investors. This interest is very high in Northern Queensland, where due to the state’s more advanced processing facilities, ports and infrastructure, and although more isolated, there is high interest in the Northern Territory where properties are larger and there is an opportunity to gain economies of scale.

“The other thing you need to understand is a lot of these guys have already got business interests in south-east Asia and particularly in China,” said Ben Waters, “so they already have a pathway to market to place the output from all those properties they’ve acquired, straight into the very fast growing Asian markets that are very keen to get their hands on clean, green and sustainably produced protein.”