IMTRADE Australia was a supplier of seeds, fertilisers and agricultural chemicals when (now) managing director Ross Rainbird joined his parents-in-law to run the company in 1981.
Things stayed that way until 2004, when the Kwinana-based company embarked on a major restructure of its business model, trying its hand at manufacturing its own agricultural chemicals, which included pesticides, herbicides and insecticides.
Today, with more than 260 product registrations, Imtrade Australia has become one of the very few companies nationwide to develop and distribute its own crop protection products.
The company has doubled its staff numbers from 20 to 40 since 2005, and last financial year increased its turnover by 50 per cent and invested more than $800,000 in research and development.
Despite this considerable growth, Dr Rainbird said the past six years had presented the company with some of its greatest challenges.
The increasing amount of agricultural chemicals being imported from China, the droughts of last year and the ongoing skills shortages in Western Australia were all cited as major difficulties.
Dr Rainbird said it was the quality of the agricultural chemicals being produced for the company that had prompted it to venture into manufacturing.
“We got to a certain size and found we had no intellectual property and had no control over quality,” Dr Rainbird told WA Business News.
“The quality of the product that was being produced for us locally wasn’t the best and we had no control over when it would be made or when we were going to get it.”
Setting up its own laboratory gave Imtrade the ability to develop its own products and test those products it would import.
“We rented a factory down in Kwinana in what was a ‘baptism of fire’; it was a completely different ball game for us because we had always been trading and had never been a real manufacturer,” Dr Rainbird said.
After initial success, the company invested in 2.8 hectares of land at Kwinana and constructed a $4 million purpose-built laboratory and formulating shed.
“We still bring in fully manufactured chemicals and we still trade, but what that [laboratory] has allowed us to do is check our quality,” Dr Rainbird said.
“In our laboratory we’ve been able to check all the raw materials coming in and check the fully formulated materials coming in, as well as become the master of our own destiny.”
The growth of Chinese imports was another reason the company felt the need to differentiate itself.
“I think as the market evolves and we are getting more and more Chinese competition coming in and selling direct to farmers, we have had to try and find the niche for ourselves and our niche is unique formulations,” Dr Rainbird said.
“Last year we spent $800,000 on R&D and if we don’t invest that kind of money we won’t be here in five years’ time; regulations wise it’s more much more difficult to manufacture in Australia than it is to manufacture in China.”
Additional concerns about impurities and potential carcinogens from imported products were all the more reason for the company to test everything.
“Nobody has an obligation to test, so one day there will be a disaster,” Dr Rainbird said.
“And six years ago we were doing the same and we are no white knights, but I guess as we have grown we have become more aware and conscious of it, because one day someone’s going to wake up and say we need to have this [testing] done.”
Finding the right chemical engineers and chemists in WA to develop such products was no easy feat, however.
Dr Rainbird said the ongoing skills shortage in WA, combined with the small number of chemistry graduates, made finding good staff difficult.
“There are just nowhere near enough professional people, and nobody goes into these professions in Australia any more because it’s not seen as a sexy industry to be in,” he said.
To get around this issue, Dr Rainbird said he had recruited most of his professional staff from Asia.
“Without the 457 migration visas we would be in big trouble,” he said.
While the company currently distributes its cutomised products to the east coast and exports them to South Africa and Malaysia, Dr Rainbird hopes to increase the volume of exports over the next couple of years.
He also plans to continue to develop waste-minimisation strategies, and reduce the company’s carbon footprint.
“I think we will continue to fill holes in the farmer’s tool box, from weed persistence, to pesticide resistance and hopefully, end up with a much smaller carbon footprint for the whole industry,” he said.
