ONE of Australia’s largest agribusinesses, Webster Limited, will sell $78 million of water to the Federal Government.
Webster’s decision to sell just under 22,000 megalitres water is part of its plan to decommission the Lake Tandou irrigation system which underpins its flagship property south of Menindee.
Webster irrigates about 14,000 hectares on the converted dry lake bed of Lake Tandou.
In Autumn Webster will strip Tandou’s last cotton crop before transitioning to an organic Dorper lamb business.
Proceeds from the sale of the water will be used to repay debts. Come September it will record a net profit in the order of $37 million.
Webster is one of the largest irrigated farming producers in Australia. It specialises in walnuts but also farms more than 40,000 irrigable hectares across southern Queensland and NSW focusing on cotton, corn and other cereals and livestock.
In 2015 the listed company acquired major listed land and water company Tandou (which had its cotton ginning operations at Lake Tandou) completing one of the biggest listed agricultural land and water plays in Australia's history.