 Trandos Farms is a fourth generation farming business. The business was started by my grandfather in 1939. He immigrated on his own from Northern Greece and began growing vegetables in a small plot of least swamp land in one room near Perth. Our packing facility is still in one room near where my grandfather first began. My family has several other farming interests including Trandos beef, Trandos chicken farm, and Trandos hydroponics. And we have 14 family members in various roles throughout the businesses. And I'd also like to acknowledge my excellent staff. I was once asked why I love the industry. Well the truth is I'm actually not a morning person at all. So it's very hard to love anything when you get up 4.30 every morning of your life. I'm actually so scary that my two iconic farm dogs, my Japanese shih tzu, pixie, and my French poodle, Teter, are afraid of me. And that's Ted getting ready for a cattle muster there. And my wife thought he was going to get cold. So I put a jumper on him. I'm shocking in the morning, I really am. It's a tough business to be in when you're like that. After our humble beginnings, Trandos farms is the largest grow of sweet corn and beans in West Australia. We have three locations. Our packing and processing facility in one room 40 minutes north of Perth. Our southern production farm in Jinjin, 90 minutes north of Perth. And our winter production farm, Shalom administration, 2,000 kilometers north of Perth, 205 kilometers south of Broom. Our aiming growing crops in Broom is to offer year round supply of corn and beans. A fresh commercial crop had never been grown in the region before. So I was in incredible risk for my company to take in order to achieve year round supply. After digging a big hole and pushing lots of money into it, it is now working. Although in farming, as in everything else, we are still learning. We supply the major supermarket change throughout Australia and are now exporting to seven countries throughout the world. We used to grow cauliflower, broccoli and lettuce in the winter and corn and beans in the summer. However, at the height of the mining boom, it was nearly impossible to get people to manually harvest crop in the field. I believe, sorry, there's a picture of the Broom farm, I believe that labour still remains the number one problem for vegetable growers in Australia. We only grow corn and beans because they are mechanically harvested. With the slowing down of the mineral boom, and I'm very sorry about that sort of, we are now seeing the return of FIFO mining workers seeking work in industry. What I will not miss about the mining boom is the over-inflated prices that we still continue to pay today, although they now correct themselves and it's quite brutal in Western Australia. We began exporting to Japan over 10 years ago with the help of a Japanese expat that lived in Perth. However, this dropped off as a result of increase in the Australian dollar and improvements in sales in our domestic market. We also had an issue with consistency and supply and we were still seasonal and did not have scale. We were doing pretty good on the domestic market, supplying vegetable supermarket chains and not making any money. I gotta say that because I'm a farmer. I was not looking or interested in exporting at all. My friend, David Wilkins, who owns a major freight forwarding company in Perth, WorldLink, would see me on a weekly basis and ask me if I wanted to export anything. I kept saying to him, no, David, I'm not interested. In actual fact, I put my hand up and said, no, I'm really not interested. Shortly after that conversation, I went on a trip to England towards 2013 nations because I'm a cricket diehard. And of course, we lost. On the way up there, I stopped off in Dubai and did what I do in every country that I visit, which is I go through every supermarket, every shopping mall, every corner store and check the pricing of every corn product in there. The product I show on the shelf was from South Africa and unfortunately it was a fairly poor quality. Standing there in that supermarket, I did some quick technical calculations. I was looking up at the sky for about five minutes. The Australian dollar was falling. And if the product had come in by air freight and not by sea freight, we were in with a show. So I had a light bulb moment, probably only want to get a year. I approached the supermarket directly and sent samples and pricing. Their comment was, we appreciate that your product is a very high quality, however, the buyer in Dubai is South African and the product is coming from South Africa. The chances of you entering the market were very slim. And my comment simply was, I respect your company's loyalty and if ever you need a product, we're happy to help. I was a little bit disappointed, but that's what I was happy to hear. I was happy to hear that they were loyal. Shortly after that, about 10 days later, the supermarket called me from Dubai, telling me that it was a problem with the South African product and how quickly I could get the product up to Dubai. And then I had to ring my friend, David, and so with my tail between my legs and basically beg him, he told me if I delivered the product the following day, it would end up in Dubai Thursday morning. The buyer was very happy and quickly we could turn it around. And from that day on, nearly two years ago, we now export three to four air consumptions to Dubai of corn per week. I knew once we entered the export market again that our business would have to change from a domestic-based, low-profile one to an international high-profile model. I had my reasons for not wanting to be high-profile in Australia. We were domestic-based and I did not want to be contacted by people ordering one box at a time. As much as we think we're clever, as I thought I was clever, and we all think we're clever, I needed help in updating my brand. I met Peter Bradshaw from Daredevil Promotions who asked me what's the most important thing and I said, it's all about the taste, mate. It's all about the taste. And there he is in the middle of the road with his back on the road doing our last marketing initiative. We trade under Western Australian corn growers. This was our label before we met Peter. And this is the label that Peter developed. When I first saw it, I thought it was pretty corny. Pardon the pun. I really did. I thought, are you kidding me, man? Kangaroo, son, are you kidding me? But when I looked at it, I thought, well, that really is easy. That really is. So clearly is an Australian product. He did a fantastic job. Our customers absolutely love it. So when we send it overseas, they absolutely love it. We're actually very lucky from simple terms that we actually have Australia in our name. So my apologies to New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, but we'll keep the Australia in ours. I'd also like to acknowledge the role that the vegetable levee has helped us in accessing these markets, Ausvege and horticulture, horticulture Innovation Australia, sorry, David, has had in helping me achieve the access. In building export relationships, I'll listen to the customer and understand what they want and where they see their business going. Sometimes it's not possible to get our product in because we are high cost producers. So having good relationships, but there may be a short window open up at any time. So having good relationships with your customers is important. I don't dismiss anybody in the marketplace. I send samples and follow up with business phone calls and emails. I send the customer a product that might match their price point and something that may be different enough to enter their market. We may have to go smaller or change the count in packs. I've stopped worrying so much about etiquette, though I don't disrespect etiquette. I use the international rule of good manners and respect. I don't go by the textbook of international trade and I certainly don't take myself too seriously. I relax and listen to what the customer wants and I've got used to answering some very strange questions. I now do a lot more groundwork before fronting up to an export meeting. And research on the customer. The quality of the export product has to be of a high standard or it's simply not shipped. And we have to have scale to cover demand. We can have all the niceties and good relationships with customers, but it's only the product that counts in the end. So of course the white elephant in the room is payment. You must always ensure you get paid and set up terms that work for you. Of the dozen or so export customers we have, we're fortunate never to have any payment issues. I'd like to tell you a little story about my last export meeting. It was my daughter's university graduation and that night it was about 4,000 students graduated in alphabetical order. So having the last name of Trandos, she came in at about 3,500 that night. That night I wished my name was Adams so I could pull a sick card and leave early. I was completely wiped out. The next morning I was writing this speech and my office manager, Jan came in and said, you do remember you've got that Singaporean delegation coming of 20 to the Jinjin this afternoon at four o'clock. I thought, oh, you've got to be kidding me. So it was Friday afternoon, the Jinjin farm is an hour away. So I did what I thought I've got this, I'll have to do it myself. So I loaded the unit up, took all the refreshments, put the beer in a separate eski and I took some microwave corn packs to go there so I could try the product. I'm thinking it's Friday afternoon, right? There won't be anybody there and don't forget we're now a country of innovators. We're not a country of workers. I get to the farm and there's nobody there. It's very quiet. I can't hear anything. The bus was coming in, the big bus was coming in so I was worried about him going around the tractors. So I started up setting up the tables in the shed, tea, coffee, wine, beer and now I heard something coming from the back of the property. So I thought, oh, I better go and see who that is. So I drive to the back of the property and who is it? It's Herb, the 75 year old manure man. Who else would be working on a Friday, right? At five o'clock. So I walk into yell at him and say, look, Herb, there's a bus coming through just then he lifts the bucket up and I get covered in manure. It's unbelievable. I stunk to high heaven. I go back, I'm setting up the table. I was feeling pretty good. I thought, okay, no problem. They're coming, they're running late. Steve, so I thought it was okay. My brother called me and said, you know, you should go and get some of that bicolor corner throw at the barbecue and serve it with that microwave stuff. I thought, oh, God. It was a my kitchen rules moment. I was rushing around, putting the corn, the microwave taking it out, went pick some corn, came back and Steve from the delegation rang me, said we're coming to the gate. I'm gonna meet him at the gate which is a kilometer away. I jump in the ute, it's about a kilometer. I fly down at about 110 kilometers now. I see the bus pass me down. 22 minutes later, he finds a place to turn around and come back. I get on the bus and we continue down the road and I start giving him the spiel about life cycles of corn, GPS intractors, center pivots, how hard I work, that's why I smell. When we get to this shed and I invite him in, I welcome all in for drinks. I'm there by myself, so I turn around and speak to Steve from the delegation and he says to me, you know what Jim? Chairman Tam will have a beer, I'm thinking, great. Chairman Tam will have a beer, again, this is it. So I turn around, I've got these two beers in my hand and I'm thinking, I forgot which one the chairman was. At that point in two seconds, that's when you lose a contract. So fortunately I gave it to him and there's a picture of me and Chairman Tam in the field. So everything was fine. In closing, I believe export is great for the industry as it means we are not competing for the same domestic dollar but are bringing money into our country. While the Australian dollar is low, we have a fantastic opportunity to create export business and relationships and consolidate our position on the global market. Now and then we may get covered in manure but we can't let the discourages just be loyal, genuine and focus on what you do best which is producing a high quality product. Thank you very much. I'd just like to show you a quick two minute movie on the day of a life of what we do at a farm. Thank you.