AMID global financial gloom and doom comes a good news story this week, courtesy of Queensland's cotton industry.
For the first time in seven years, a 22,000-tonne shipment of cotton seed worth more than $9 million is being loaded at Central Queensland's Port of Gladstone this week, to be exported to Californian dairy farms in the US.
Some 8000t was loaded at Brisbane last weekend and the remaining 14,000t at Gladstone this week onto the aptly-named vessel, Global Dream, after Dunavant Australia made the sale to a large private dairy operator in the US late last year.
With domestic demand for cotton seed less robust this year and supplies more plentiful due to a cracking season in Queensland, Dunavant seized on the opportunity for the sale.
Gladstone Ports Corporation businesses development coordinator Lee Jorgensen confirmed it was the first shipment of cotton seed to leave the Port of Gladstone since a shipment of about 19,000t in February, 2002, with the fluffy white product signalling a stark change from the coal usually shipped from the site.
Dunavant Australia commodity trader Ian Grellman said the cotton seed was sourced from Dunavant's gins at Dalby and Yamala, near Emerald.
He said the shipment was the result of a number of factors including vastly increased plantings and yields in the 2008/09 season, increased water supply and security in dams particularly in CQ, and the value of the Australian dollar at the time of the sale.
"What we're trying to do is get this started again, seeing as we've got plenty of water in the dams and also a bit of a window where the Aussie dollar dropped in value, to make it work in the US again.
"It started in October 2008 with the negotiations with the US buyer we sold it to.
"It's been a long process and we've had quite a number of initial start-up costs we've had to factor in including transport to the port, bunkering of the cotton seed, fumigation of the cotton seed, and registering the site, but we want to make this an ongoing operation.
"We made the sale at the right time – the price was around $450 Australian FOB (free on board) when we made the sale, but currently the price would be about $80 lower than that.
"The way we're going with production of cotton in CQ, I think there's going to be an excess of cotton seed available in the future and currently we don't use enough in the area, so I definitely think it's going to be a viable ongoing operation so as long as we have water and sustain the area of cotton grown.
"It's been a very testing time at some points – we've had a lot of hurdles to jump but it's very exciting to finally get to this point."
Some of those hurdles have included meeting strict US specifications, including having a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspector present when the site was fumigated, while AQIS is constantly testing the seed as it is loaded onto the vessel.
"In the US they have gone from producing over 25 million bales of cotton down to an estimated 13 to 14 million bales this year, so they're still a big producer of cotton in the world but the problem is where their cotton is," Mr Grellman said.
"Cotton is grown in the southern States on the east coast, but it's in the west coast where they're looking at getting all the seed because they've got very intensive dairy and beef cattle operations which cotton seed is ideal for.
"It's a big deal for us and we've got to get it across the line and make sure the buyer is happy with the cotton seed.
"But the Australian cotton industry has gone through a lot of drought and water issues, and now to have this export is not only a boost for Dunavant but also for the industry, and might signal a return to the old days of cotton being king."
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