Following a record $467 million in sales over the past three years, the Northern Rivers Livestock Exchange at Casino is throwing its doors open to new agencies.
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Key changes are proposed for the new financial year, after June, when all five existing livestock agencies that use the facility will need to re-tender their selling position.
The plan, going on 60 days of public exhibition, calls for vendor fees to remain the same for another three years, making it six since new prices were introduced at the completion of the saleyards' $15 million rebuild.
Agents, however, will be charged 0.2 per cent of the value of livestock sold and no longer just one dollar a head.
The change in figuring effectively triples the fee to about $3/hd.
Average fees charged to agents from most other saleyard operators are more than what Richmond Valley Council is planning to charge, according to figures prepared by the NRLX, with the average being 0.28pc/hd.
Privately-owned Tamworth and Inverell, with council-owned Mudgee yards, each charge 0.3pc.
Council-owned Mossvale saleyards charges the most at 0.36pc, Mudgee asks for 0.35pc. At council-owned Scone the flat rate is $4.50/hd.
Read more: Councils expose flood insurance failure.
Last financial year the NRLX paid $300,000 to the council from the sale of cattle.
The cost of the facility, half funded by the Richmond Valley Council, remained a significant asset for ratepayers and Mayor Robert Mustow alluded to that fact when he said "the community needs to have confidence that the facility is there for financial gain. We owe the community that."
Mayor Mustow said new requirements would include enhanced transparency that would show vendors how much of their saleyards fee went back to ratepayer and how much was absorbed by the agents.
NRLX operations manager Brad Willis confirmed that the council's intention was to "grow numbers".
"But we don't want to dilute the market with too many agencies," he said.
"We want to make it an attractive option for businesses to apply."
Facilities like privately owned CTRLX at Carcoar hosts 13 agents each averaging 7989 head every year. At Casino each agent handles 23,956; slightly more than Dalby, Qld with 23,545hd but less than Roma, Qld and Leongatha,Vic. which were around 30,000hd each.
Most selling centres catered for between 5-8 agencies.
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