'I don't believe that experience is a very good teacher': Lessons from three decades in agrifood

“I don’t believe that experience is a very good teacher. Just having had 30 years at doing something is not much use at all, because it could just be the same year repeated 30 times.”  

Talking to Matthew Durack, you get the impression he rarely makes the same mistake twice. The circus vet turned nut farmer turned corporate ag director has forged himself a varied career in the ag sector through grit, graft, and one clear goal: transformation. 

“The vast percentage of the wealth generated from agriculture over time hasn’t come from running farms well,” explained Matthew. “It’s come from capital gain brought about by land transformation – which has predominantly been underpinned by government investment.”  

Matthew Durack. Image | supplied.

“Like the Beef Roads to develop the northern pastoral industry, and the huge irrigation schemes across the north and south of the country. But governments are somewhat less interested in doing those things these days.”  

Do the maths in your head and it’s likely you’ll come to the same conclusion Matthew did:

“If someone is going to do the transformation, it better be you.”  

“Whether or not there’s potential for continued capital growth is crystal ball stuff. But one thing you can be certain of is your ability to execute on a daily basis.” 

Transformation: a business goal, career mindset, and personal value

Executing on a daily basis is something Matthew did for over 30 years at Stahmann Farms – first as farm manager, before eventually buying what became the biggest pecan producer and processor in Australia.  

“We established a tree nut pool trading business and expanded our retail nut supply business domestically and internationally. Ultimately, we sold to an overseas institutional investor, and I thought, ‘Well, what do I do now?’”  

“I only know agriculture.”  

The answer was three core operating entities all founded on the principle of transformation: 

• 2te, a macadamia development and operating business which converts cane land to macadamia production. 

• 2DE, a vertically integrated beef enterprise operating over 80,000 hectares of grazing and dryland grain country from Eromanga in Queensland’s west to Warwick in the east, focusing on land transformation.  

• And the Pure Grain Network, a company seeking to transform the grains value chain, starting with the malt barley industry.  

 

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To all three enterprises, Matthew brings his desire to create strong, informed connections with the end user – be that a consumer, supermarket, or brewery.  

“We tend to operate in a commodity-based marketing system in Australia, and in an industrial agricultural context: at large scale, producing lots of stuff,” said Matthew.  

“Most of us don’t know our customer, and that means we tend to just keep focusing on increasing production. But when you sell a commodity, all that does is lower your price.”  

To accelerate innovation, bring the end user closer

Matthew’s gotten close to the consumer with the grains business, whose primary product is malt barley.  

“Malthouses are customers that really care about what they’re buying, because they’re buying a live ‘animal’ of sorts.”  

“They’re very specific about their quality parameters and if you understand those very well, then you can build a strong relationship.” 

Matthew is Co-Owner of 2 Tonne Enterprises, a premium macadamia management company in New South Wales, driven by data and innovation. Image | @2tonneenterprises

“And from there you can build a relationship with the next level up, which is the brewer. The brand owner. And once you have that, then really exciting things can start to happen.”  

For Pure Grain, one of those things is a customer-funded commercial trial of regenerative agricultural practices. Matthew explained how being driven along a pathway by your customer is an exciting place to be – holding potential for an increase in price.

“It’s certainly a happier place to be than just responding to regulation, because that never created a dollar for anyone!” 

The trials are being led by Asahi Beverages – the Japanese brewing giant which holds around 50% of Australian beer market with brands like Great Northern, Carlton Draught, VB, and craft brewers 4 Pines and Balter.  

“They’re partly driven by their consumer,” explained Matthew, “But they’re strongly driven by investor demand for evidence they are actually progressing down the ESG [environmental social governance] pathway.” 

‘ESG is not about storytelling for them. They’re really wanting to understand the nitty gritty, so they asked us to get down into the dirt and tell them what was happening with the footprint of their malt barley supply.”

“And importantly, where we, Australia, sit versus other suppliers like Argentina or Europe.” 

S for social: the overlooked middle child of ESG

Having watched the ESG space develop and morph over time, Matthew lamented that the ‘social’ element – the S – is poorly captured.  

“If you dig into how agrifood companies tend to evaluate social impact, it’s things like giving money to the local footy club. But is that going to make a real difference? Are you creating an environment that provides a great life for people that are working in it?” 

“Sitting on a spray rig for 12 to 18 hours a day spraying out 1000s of litres of the world’s most destructive chemicals to control weeds and pests? I did it, but do we want our kids to work in an environment like that for the rest of their lives?”  

“Sustainability is about more than just the environment. It has to be about the people in that environment, too.”  

The regenerative barley trials are just one example. Across the macadamia orchards, 2te uses interrows for biodiverse plantings to encourage beneficial control agents that reduce the need for synthetic pesticides. And instead of applying fertilisers, they intermittently mow the interrows and sweep the clippings onto the tree rows to reduce the need for nutrient inputs.  

Across all three businesses, Matthew has around 70 team members helping to drive transformation.  

“Success is based on employment; no question about that. So long as you can afford to pay them!” 

But Matthew believes many in the ag sector still see employment as a challenge, and employees as a liability. “I mean, those things can be true at times, but employment is absolutely critical to success in business.” 

“When I started at Stahmann Farms 30 years ago, I was pretty incompetent across most aspects of agriculture. All I knew was how much I wanted to do it.”  

“And I certainly wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without the people around me to help.”