Agribusiness buzz in brief

However, Nufarm and Sumitomo Chemical company will continue a "mutually beneficial" business alliance which began when the Japanese took a blocking stake in the crop protection business, stonewalling advances by Chinese giant, Sinochem, in 2010.

Nufarm said the crop protection market was important to both companies and therefore the desire to continue to grow the commercial relationship and synergies in global agriculture remained a key objective.

Sumitomo offloaded about 60m shares in the $5.38 to $5.60 price range - less than half the $14 a share it apparently paid 12 years ago when scooping up about 20pc of Nufarm.

Two years ago Nufarm also sold its South American business to Sumitomo Chemical for $1.2 billion to help bankroll business improvement plans in other markets, including its expanding seeds and biofuel interests.

Argentine-based transgenic wheat breeder, Trigall Genetics, and the US-listed S&W Seed Company's Australian business, are in talks to potentially combine wheat their operations, creating wheat breeding company, Trigall Australia, based in NSW.

The deal would mean all S&W's Australian wheat breeding activities would be owned and operated by Trigall Australia.

Trigall is keen to expand its drought tolerant breeding activities into regions where farmers face climate change challenges and specifically, drought.

The new company would harness S&W's Australian footprint, currently based in South Australia, and the capabilities Trigall's co-owners, the US company, Bioceres Crop Solutions, and French family-owned food crop seed producer, Florimond Desprez.

Trigall Genetics is already a world leader in transgenic wheat and the developer of the drought-tolerance HB4 EcoWheat technology, as well as having conventional wheat breeding activities in Argentina.

It said Australia represented a priority development geography given the effects of climate change are ever more pressing.

Trigall's part owner Florimond Desprez already breeds wheat in North Africa, Latin America and Europe.

S&W Seed Company's Australian breeding activities include wheat, sorghum, lucerne and pasture crops.

Mining and energy behemoth, BHP may speed up development of its huge Jansen potash mine in Canada to take advantage of the fertiliser shortage created by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

However any new supplies from the project in Saskatchewan would not emerge before 2026.

Sanctions against Russian exports have basically halted about 40 per cent of global potash exports which originate from Russia and Belarus.

BHP has already committed $8 billion to its new Jansen project, but is now looking at fast tracking the first of six stages, but any development work has to fit in with Canada's freezing weather for six months of the year.

BHP managing director, Mike Henry has predicted the potash resource could be worth at least as much as the company's petroleum business, bringing greater cash flow sustainability and returns resilience to the business.

In 2010 BHP attempted to buy Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan prior to that company being absorbed into the newly created agribusiness giant Nutrien, but the takeover was blocked by the provincial government.

Coles is to introduce customer shopping bags made with marine waste and recycled plastic at its supermarkets.

The new plastic bags contain 80 per cent recycled plastic, including 20pc marine waste plastic recovered from ocean-feeding waterways and inland areas primarily within Malaysia.

A tenth of the 25 cents sale price of each bag goes to supporting Clean Up Australia's Buy Recycled program.

The bags will be available in Coles stores in all states except Western Australia.

One of Australia's biggest vegetable seedling growers, Queensland's Withcott Seedlings, has sold a majority stake to offshore private equity group, ADM Capital.

The 40-year-old Toowoomba company has not disclosed the price paid by the investor, whose Cibus food and agriculture division will hold the stake as part of its $1.2 billion agribusiness asset portfolio.

Cibus also owns almond orchards in Victoria's Sunraysia, as well as investments in olive oil, aquaculture, horticulture and honey.

Withcott has 22 hectares of igloos and shade netting covering its seedling establishment operation, which is expected to expand output to 350m seedlings a year following the Cibus funding injection.

Until now, Withcott has been majority owned by the Hindle Cattle Company's Hindle family at Dalveen in southern Queensland.

A new tech skills hub in regional Queensland will bring together industry, government and education providers to help develop career pathways and skills for the agricultural and aquacultural workforce.

The Aquaculture and Agriculture Tech Skills Hub is a partnership between the Australian Government, Queensland Government, CQUniversity Australia and TAFE Queensland to deliver the sector's workforce with skills and capabilities through a funding agreement valued at almost $1.7 million.

The partner organisations will engage with industry and community to develop training programs aligned to new career pathways and future agribusiness occupations including aquaculture, horticulture, sugar and beef.

Training programs will be targeted at low and semi-skilled workers already within the sector for them to gain competencies in new skills and technology to support the evolution of the agribusiness sector.

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