One of Australia’s biggest walnut producer, Webster Limited, has expanded its nut portfolio with another 250-hectare acquisition in southern NSW.
Webster, which has been beefing up its nut and broadacre irrigation operations in the Riverina for the past few years, paid $10 million cash for the “Motspur Park” orchard, to be topped up with a share allocation to the vendors worth about $13.1m.
Webster produces about 90 per cent of Australia’s walnut crop from about 2000ha of orchards in Tasmania and NSW, with a further 900ha of young Riverina plantings set to produce their first harvest next year.
After last financial year’s property expansion push and consolidation, including a writedown of about $96.6m in asset valuations, Webster recently posted a $4.1m after tax statutory net profit for the six months to December 31 – rebounding from last year’s $97m loss. While sales revenue was down 6pc to $53.2m, the company reported a $5.4m profit from water entitlement sales.
