HALBURY hay producer and Balco shareholder Grant Anderson, Anderson Farms, hopes the new partnership with Shanghai Yanhua Hi-Tech will increase access for Australian export hay into Chinese markets.
"While Balco has been the biggest hay exporter into China of recent times, this new interest will hopefully help to expand that market, which has huge potential," he said.
Mr Anderson said ideally he would have preferred the company stayed completely Australian-owned.
"But the alternative of not finding an investment partner would have limited their ability for growth in Chinese markets," he said.
"We need Balco to export our hay from Australia - if the company wasn't to survive, it's one less competitor in the market."
Mr Anderson has been supplying hay to Balco the past 25 years - about 2000 tonnes to 3000t of oaten hay and about 2000t of straw annually.
He has also been a Balco shareholder for the past five years.
"This (finding an investor) had been on the cards for awhile, it was just a matter of finding a suitable candidate for the investment," he said.
"Hopefully the extra investment will put the company in a much stronger position financially going forward."
