Greentree has been appointed head of the Wheat Classification Council and a director of Wheat Quality Australia

CONTROVERSIAL northern NSW grain grower Ron Greentree has been appointed as a director of Wheat Quality Australia and chairman of the Wheat Classification Council.

Vision: Ron Greentree is Australia’s largest wheat grower.

CONTROVERSIAL northern NSW grain grower Ron Greentree has been appointed as a director of Wheat Quality Australia and chairman of the Wheat Classification Council.

The appointments were announced by Wheat Quality Australia chairwoman Christine Hawkins.

Mr Greentree is a former chairman of GrainCorp and last year backed Archer Daniels Midland’s takeover bid of the bulk handler, before Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey rejected it.

He is also a former chairman of Grain Growers Limited, but resigned after an internal battle over corporate governance changes.

Mr Greentree runs a grain and cattle operation at Mungindi, in NSW, and is Australia’s largest grain farmer.

He was fined $150,000 in The Federal Court of Australia in 2004 for illegal clearing land in the Gwydir wetlands, a site recognised as significant under the international Ramsar convention.

One of his companies, Auen Pty Ltd was fined $300,000 for a similar offence.

Mr Greentree’s lawyer claimed in court the land clearing was an “honest mistake” but this was rejected by the presiding judge, Justice Sackville, in handing down the penalties to both parties.

Wheat Quality Australia was formed after abolition of the single desk to carry out the wheat classification tasks previously done by AWB (International) Limited.