Family Business No.1 with growers

 Family business No.1 with growers

by David McLintock

(Story previously published in the Callide Dawson Leader)

If you are a mung bean grower in Central Queensland then you no doubt are fully aware of Allenden Seeds right here in Goovigen and what they have to offer the growers.

What many may not know is that Sydney Allenden and his son Clint's facility is 100% Australian family owned and operated, something that is becoming less common throughout the country with overseas investors taking more and more chunks out of these businesses.

It was in 1974 that the Allenden famly first started growing mung beans on their farm and after being continually disillusioned with existing processing plants they decided to set up their own grading plant for their own use. In 1978 Syd Senior bought a small grading plant, air screen plant and gravity table from the Burdekin along with bucket elevators and brought it to the Allenden property. They pulled down an old dairy and set up their grading plant on the same spot and started processing their own beans.

Carter, Syd and Clint

During this time Syd was still working at the mines at Moura but in 1985 he came back to the farm full time and upgraded the plant as local growers were requesting their beans to be processed there as well. Initially, everything was done by hand including the 50kg bags and loaded them into the shipping containers. Originally all the containers were then loaded onto the rail at the Goovigen Railway Station and when that was closed down, to Earlsfield and then Biloela.

In 1990 they set up their first storage shed and in 2000 set up a new grading shed and have kept expanding ever since.

Belinda at the front desk of the office

It was in 2016 that they purchased a second hand robot system to bag and load the beans. This equipment was from South Australia where it was being used in a potato shed.

“We didn't really have any choice as it was very difficult to get the workers and during peak season we could ill afford to not have enough employees or have unreliable employees who might not even show up for work some days,” Syd said.

“The robot system we have now,” Clint said, “can do the work of six men.”

“The automated bagging machine is 100% Australian made in Melbourne and on one day we did 6,455 bags which is 161 tons of graded beans. We were loading 20 containers a week which was 4 containers a day in a 5 day week. In a good season we are exporting over 12,000 tonnes of graded beans a year.”

Clint beside the automated bagging machine

“When the gas pipeline was being constructed in the region we had a shore crane available at the Gladstone Port. All our beans went from site here directly to Gladstone,” Syd said. “When the gas pipeline finished, in their wisdom they decided to move the shore crane away from Gladstone, leaving the port without any means to load containers or anything else for that matter.”

“What we have to do now is road transport our containers to Rockhampton and then by train to Brisbane,” he explained. “Mind you if they don't have a full train they cancel it. Once they get to Brisbane they load them onto a ship and then send them back up the coast, past the Gladstone port on their journey to Asia.”

“This isn't just affecting our business. This effects everyone who is exporting from outside of Brisbane,” Syd said. “In Townsville the meatworks there send their containers to Brisbane where they put them on a boat to go back past Townsville. This applies to all the meatworks up the coast including Rockhampton, Mackay and the Biloela meatworks.”

Lachlan Sypher from Alpha picking up sugar drip seed

“Its obvious that they want everything concentrated in the South-East corner,” Syd said, “and it's not just our industry and the meat industry that this effects, it's all export industries outside of Brisbane except for coal and grain.”

Mr. Ellenden went on to say that if he could export out of Gladstone they would be able to cut their costs by up to $100 a ton which would go directly back to the growers.

“95% of our business is Mung beans and we have growers transporting their beans from not just throughout Central Queensland including Emerald, Capella and Clermont areas but as far away as Quirindi in New South Wales,” Clint said. “These growers have had their fingers burnt with all those grading sheds down south so they put it in a truck and drive it up here to us, nearly 1,000 kilometres away.”

With the grading business continually growing, Ellenden Seeds already have 30 storage silos with another 10 on the way which will give them a total of 6,000 tons storage capability.

Clint operating one of the many forklifts in the shed

There is also a new designed and larger gravity table due to arrive any day from America which will push through 15 tons of beans an hour. This is replacing the 4 smaller tables currently in use. It also has the added benefit of using half the amount of power as the previous 4 gravity tables combined.

Besides Syd and Clint the business employs both Carter full time (Office Logistic's Manager) and Belinda, full time in the office. During the busy periods of the year, they also employ casual workers, mainly back packers because they are so reliable.

“We might only have them for a couple of months but they want to be here and they want to work,” Syd said.

“Our business goal is all about being here for the grower and being able to move the beans at the best rate,” he said. “We have improved our storage capacity, upgraded our grading equipment and automated our bagging and stacking procedures so we are never in a position where we have to turn any grower away.”