CATTLE producers and stockfeed manufacturers in North Queensland have another feed option with soybean meal and corn gluten pellets being imported through the Port of Townsville.
Global agribusiness ADM has started importing products sourced directly from the company's corn and soybean processing facilites in the US Mid-West.
ADM managing director trading Australia and New Zealand Tim Henry said the move north would provide much needed supply and pricing competition for cattle producers, as products were traditionally sourced and trucked from Brisbane or southern stockfeed mills.
Mr Henry said the Townsville venture was their first foray into the north.
"ADM has been supplying these and other products direct to dairy farmers in New Zealand for the past six years, so it was only a matter of time before we embarked on the Australian market," Mr Henry said.
"Soybean meal has a great fit across a number of feeding applications, as does corn gluten feed pellets, where it can be used as a supplement in both paddock and confined cattle feeding operations.''
Local stevedoring, storage and logistics business, Sizer and Cogill, will manage ADM's operations on the ground for both imported products and the company's emerging grain export program out of Townsville.
The North Queensland operations will compliment ADM's existing national origination footprint, where it supplies domestic and global customers with wheat, barley, canola, sorghum and pulses from southern grain ports.