Lempriere Grain owners submit debt claims for $10.4 million

THE owners of Lempriere Grain have submitted debt claims for more than half the losses in the failed grain trader.

Huge fallout: Lempriere Grain has collapsed with debts of $18.8 million.

THE owners of Lempriere Grain have submitted debt claims for more than half the losses in the failed grain trader.

Will Lempriere has lodged a claim for $525,000 as a shareholder loan to Lempriere Grain and Singaporean joint owner Starcom Resources Pte Ltd has claimed losses of $9.9 million in the grain trader’s collapse.

Mr Lempriere is half owner of Lempriere Grain through two holding companies and was a director until January last year.

Starcom Resources is the other half owner and its founder Ajay Aggarwal is one of two remaining directors of Lempriere Grain.

THE STORY SO FAR:

FARMERS MAY HAVE TO REPAY MONEY AFTER COLLAPSE

LEMPRIERE GRAIN TO MOVE INTO ADMINISTRATION

LEMPRIERE GRAIN IN SLOW PAYMENTS FOR GRAIN

A creditors meeting yesterday heard Lempriere Grain collapsed with debts of more than $18.8 million owed to 93 creditors other than the two owners of the company.

Most of the creditors are farmers, although big grain companies Cargill Australia, CHS Broadbent, Emerald Grain and GrainCorp join a group of 12 Grain Trade Australia members to have been caught up in the collapse.

Two of the biggest creditors are Melaluka Trading, which is owed $584,000, and Perth-based WA Grains, with $365,000.

Melaluka Trading lost $112,000 in the recent collapse of Special One Grain Accumulator, a subsidiary of Walgett Special One.

Cargill Australia faces a loss of $335,000 with the failure of Lempriere Grain.

Grain packer Agripak, which packed containers for Lempriere Grain, is owed $229,000.

A number of farmers face losses of between $100,000 and $300,000.

It has prompted calls by farmers to have trading rules overhauled to give growers better security over their produce.

Manangatang grower Trudy Ryan said farmers had no security over their grain.

“We need a first mortgage over the grain until it is paid for or it doesn’t go out the gate,” Ms Ryan said.

“We can’t afford to come off a drought and have this happen to us.”

Victorian Farmers Federation grains group president Ash Fraser said the issue would be the main agenda item at next week’s meeting of the grains council.

Mr Fraser said the current GTA code of practice had failed.

Lempriere Grain was a member of GTA in the upper echelons of its membership base, trading between 250,000 tonnes and 500,000 tonnes annually.

GTA’s Pat O’Shannassy said the latest collapses showed grain trading was a risky business.

Mr Lempriere said Lempriere Grain had acted as an exclusive buying office for Starcom Singapore for more than nine years.

“To the best of my knowledge, Starcom funded 100 per cent of the activity of the business,” he said.

“I am unaware of the financial situation of Starcom as I have been unable to communicate with anyone there for some time.

“They do not take my calls and do not answer my emails.”

Mr Lempriere said he had never had any operational involvement in the business.

“We, like others, have lost money as a result of the actions of unscrupulous people,” he said.

“This has sullied the Lempriere name’s good standing in Australian agribusiness, a matter of which I am extremely disappointed.”