Australian Cocoa Ltd seeking $20m capital from investors backing Far North farming
A push to establish an Australian cocoa industry could prove to be the saviour for Mossman which recently farewelled its primary industry of sugar cane, with no substitute yet identified.
A push to establish an Australian cocoa industry could prove to be the saviour for Mossman which recently farewelled its primary industry of sugar cane, with no substitute yet identified.
But before agricultural newcomer Australian Cocoa Ltd can start buying land from Mossman’s sugar growers, it’s chief executive is out pitching the high-value crop to investors, looking to raise $20m over three years.
The cacao farming company’s CEO Jim McKerlie said a combination of declining global supply, and the Far North’s climate, agricultural tools and practices placed the region in good stead for the launch of a new industry.
“The big question is ‘why the hell hasn’t Australia already got a cocoa industry’,” Mr McKerlie said.
“The answer is probably everyone was entrenched in sugar, and that’s what everyone wanted prime land for.”
Mr McKerlie said about 70 per cent of the global supply of cocoa was exported from West Africa, but due environmental and economic factors, the continent’s production was declining with local reports suggesting by as much as 10 per cent in the last season.
He said the Australia’s advance farming technology, aligned with the “cocoa belt” estimated to be between Tully and Daintree, could mean the region was more than three times as efficient in production rates.
But unlike other seasonal crops grown in Far North Queensland such as bananas and avocadoes which were replicated around the country, Mr McKerlie said trials from 1999 by the then Department of Primary Industries found cacao did not work in places like Broome and Darwin.
“It’s a combination of the soil, the humidity, getting rain at the right time.
“The way you measure value is volume of dry beans per hectare.
“In Africa, they get about 700kg of cocoa seeds per hectare, our trials here which we’ve done with (Mission Beach’s) Charley’s Chocolate suggest we’d get returns around 3 tonnes per hectare.”
He said the varying microclimates within the Far North itself would also present different flavoured cocoa beans which would create premium markets within the local industry.
Mr McKerlie said he had attended a workshop meeting earlier this year held for Mossman’s sugar growers looking for alternative crops, but believed he could offer them buyouts for their land.
“The average age in that room was about 80, I could be wrong but they’re not the people looking to learn a new trade. So we need to buy land, and they need a succession plan and if someone is in a house there, that’s three generations and has family history, we’ll carve that off and let them live there and farm their land.”
He said the majority of the $20m raised would go toward buying land in the Far North.
Mr McKerlie said cacao farming would increase the workforce compared to cane with labourers needed for maintenance and pruning, and additional hands required during the typical three-month, annual Spring harvest.
With cocoa seeds trading at about $7300 per tonne, Mr McKerlie said the initial goal was to plant about 300ha of cacao with the initial funds raised and “show people how it’s going in the first three years.”
“Then my vision is 1000ha and that’s when you can say you’ve really got an industry here.”
He said the fund was structured as a stapled managed investment scheme and only qualified wholesale investors could participate in the offer.
Interested investors should contact jim.mckerlie@australiancocoa.com.au
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Originally published as Australian Cocoa Ltd seeking $20m capital from investors backing Far North farming
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