WESTERN Australia's biggest farmer, John Nicoletti, said he would press ahead with plans to bypass the country's largest grain handler, CBH, after its board elections delivered a crushing blow to his hopes for the group to list on the sharemarket.
CBH is the last grain handler in Australia to maintain its co-operative structure. Many of its grower shareholders have been agitating for change, complaining that CBH is inefficient, does not deliver commercial terms to larger growers and could find it more difficult to compete in a deregulated grain market, according to The Australian Financial Review.
But those growers were defeated on Tuesday, with incumbent directors and co-operative supporters Trevor Badger and Kevin Fuchsbichler re-elected to CBH's board.
"It has absolutely gutted me," Mr Nicoletti said. "I cannot believe it. Farmers here are complaining. Well, here we had a golden opportunity for them to take advantage of equity that is rightly theirs."
Mr Nicoletti is planning to build wheat storage silos on his farms at an estimated cost of $3 million.
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