The article titled ‘Tableland crop dilemma for growers’ said that the Atherton Tableland Peanut Marketing Board had been taken over by interests in Kingaroy.

The marketing outlet in Tolga was set up by the Peanut Marketing Board, Kingaroy, in the 1950s.

This board was supported by the Queensland Government.

In recent years, there has been a change of ownership and the outlet is now owned by the Peanut Company of Australia (PCA), an unlisted public company controlled by a board of directors and shareholders – several of which have substantial holdings in the company.

Craig Mills, managing director of the Peanut Company of Australia told the North Queensland Register that the company does not import peanuts from China, as stated in the article, but from Argentina.

He said the importation was done at the request of consumers.

In an email to the North Queensland Register Mr Craig states: “This coming season, PCA has offered to peanut growers in North Queensland two marketing options for their crop.

“The first is a fixed tonnage/fixed price contract and the second a contract for any volume over the fixed tonnage amount at a guaranteed minimum price.”

This year growers have been offered $780/tonne – down from $950 last year – with a guaranteed minimum price of $650 for anything over the ‘fixed tonnage/fixed price’ the company has agreed to take at $750.

Chairman of the Peanut Growers Association on the Atherton Tableland, Fabian Gallo, said that he believed the drop to $750 to be the result of the rising value of the Australian dollar.

He emphasised that negotiations were continuing with the Peanut Company of Australia, and he was hopeful of a better deal for growers.

Information received by the North Queensland Register states that last year, Tableland growers supplied in the vicinity of 11,000 tonnes of raw nut or in excess of 14,000t of nut in shell.

The 2009/10 figure of 7000t is sure to impact heavily on farmers, many of whom have hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in plant and machinery for the production of peanuts.

Finally, it was not peanut crops which have been ploughed in, but potato crops.