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WHAT'S NEW:
August 28, 2008 Peanut growers in the Chinchilla and Texas regions have been invited to attend pre-season growers' meetings to be held soon in their areas.
There will be an informal discussion with PCA representatives over a meal to discuss the outlook for peanuts for the coming season and general peanut industry issues.
 August 8, 2008 PCA representatives, including PCA Training Co-Ordinator Wendy Martin and trainee Raymond Undery, (pictured at right), were happy to speak to South Burnett school-leavers seeking career advice at the annual Careers Market held at the Kingaroy State High School yesterday.
Students from a number of Sough Burnett schools attended the expo which included employers, training organisations and tertiary establishments.
PCA can offer career pathways in a number of fields for school leavers, ranging from office work to workshop positions.
 July 31, 2008 Representatives from Colombo United Industries have been visiting Queensland to gather feedback from peanut growers using their four-row and six-row  Colombo threshers. Colombo Export Manager Aldemiro Bignarde, ( pictured at right with Regional Export Manager Leandro Ap. dos Santos, Mateus Carello and PCA Business Analyst Lionel Wieck), said two six-row Colombo Twinmaster threshers had been sold to growers in the Emerald area. Four-row Colombo threshers have also been sold in North Queensland and at Bundaberg.
 July 28, 2008 You may hear a new voice on the end of the line when you ring PCA these days ...
Melissa Bryan, from Nanango, (pictured at right with fellow trainee Raymond Undery), recently started at PCA on a 12-month traineeship organised by Wide Bay Group Training.
Melissa is completing a Certificate III in Business Administration at the Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE (SQIT) in Kingaroy and when not at college is working at PCA in accounts payable and reception.
Another new trainee at PCA is Raymond Undery, from Crawford, who has just begun a 12-month traineeship in IT maintenance.
 July 21, 2008 Two long-serving employees, Bob Andrea and Bob Yeats (pictured at right with supervisor Paul Cooper and Raw Plant Manager Chris Seng), clocked off for the last time at PCA on Friday afternoon.
Their workmates farewelled the pair at a function held at the Carrollee Hotel on Saturday night.
Bob and Bob both worked in the Maintenance section of PCA's Kingaroy complex, helping to keep the myriad pieces of machinery running smoothly.
July 10, 2008  Back in April, a quiet revolution hit PCA's packing area with the installation of a $95,000 Verbruggen "palletizer" direct from The Netherlands. Raw Plant Manager Chris Seng, ( right), explained that this handy piece of equipment had increased the speed of product handling in the loading area and was far more efficient than previous procedures. The palletizer is coupled with PCA's heat-seal packager which ensures a smooth flow of product into 25kg plastic bags. It can also handle 22kg paper bags and 40kg hessian sacks of product.
June 30, 2008  Managing Director Bob Hansen and Board Chairman Ian Langdon (pictured at right with long-serving employee Shirley Hewison) indicated there were some exciting opportunities ahead for the company at the annual Employees Dinner held in Kingaroy this month.
Mr Hansen said PCA is in the process of purchasing properties in the Bundaberg region to help shore up its intake of peanuts. This follows the purchase of its second Northern Territory property late last year.
"It has been really quite a challenging year for the company in regards to commodity prices, changes in the prices of fuel and fertilizer and changes in climate," he said.
"However it has also been a year which has presented a lot of opportunities for us."
 June 23, 2008 PCA Directors (pictured at right, Ian Langdon, Bob Hansen, Ross Burney and Niven Hancock) briefed shareholders on recent company activities at a meeting in Kingaroy in the lead-up to the Annual General Meeting which will be held in Brisbane on July 28.
Managing Director Bob Hansen started the discussion with a presentation of photographs taken at PCA's new Katherine property, Taylors Park.
Taylors Park was purchased for $9 million late last year and is PCA's first venture into large-scale commercial peanut production.
Improvements so far have included the installation of gas dryers and pig-proof fencing.
Mr Hansen said there was a total of 4000ha of arable land and the plan was for 3500ha to be irrigated. New pivot irrigators, were currently being installed.
Runner peanut varieties were grown at the two PCA Katherine properties this year alongside corn and millet which will be used as rotation crops.
PCA Chairman Ian Langdon said the Northern Territory was a very important part of PCA's investment strategy and a step into the future for the company.
June 6, 2008 "In peanut terms it's an amazing property ... I wouldn't call it peanut heaven, but it's getting close".
This is how PCA Managing Director Bob Hansen described PCA's new Taylors Park property near Katherine on a recent episode of the ABC-TV program Landline.
PCA plans to spend nearly $20 million on its two Katherine properties over the next four to five years and aims to produce 13,500 tonnes of peanuts a year by 2012.
June 6, 2008 PCA's website came back to life last night following a transformer explosion and fire in the United States which knocked us off the air late on Saturday night.
By Monday, emergency measures PCA's IT Manager John Miller had put in place ensured emails were again flowing smoothly to and from PCA and that shareholders could download the 2008 Annual Report and the important Rights Issue documents released last week.
However the full website remained down until we were sure that when we re-connected it would be stable.
May 28, 2008 PCA Directors are pleased to announce the release of the Rights Issue Prospectus together with the 2008 Annual Report. This material will be dispatched from Brisbane to arrive with shareholders in the week commencing June 2, 2008.
May 22, 2008 PCA's new Northern Territory farm at Katherine will be featured on an upcoming episode of the ABC rural TV program Landline.
The report on the 11,700ha Taylors Park property is scheduled to air on ABC 1 at noon on Sunday June 1.
It will be repeated on ABC 1 on Monday June 2 at 11am.
May 14, 2008 There's a little blue pill which enjoys annual sales of more than $1 billion and is the fastest selling drug in pharmaceutical history. Then there's peanuts, which cost, well, peanuts.
Drug company Pfizer marked the recent 10th anniversary of the approval of Viagra by the US Food and Drug Administration with much fanfare. Peanuts, on the other hand, have been doing their job for thousands of years with much less acclaim.
So what's the link? Nitric oxide!
May 13, 2008 Peanut shells are already used in stock feed, as garden compost and to even generate power ... but there could be another important use just around the corner.
Scientists at Turkey's Mersin University have found that peanut shells can be used to extract toxic copper ions from waste water.
Their research was published in the November 2007 edition of the International Journal of Environment and Pollution.
May 13, 2008 When American actor Charlton Heston died last month, most of the obituaries referred to him playing Moses on the big screen or his well-publicised leadership of the National Rifle Association.
But it wasn't just for God, guns and movie guts that Charlton will be remembered.
He was also a very proud member of the US Peanut Butter Lovers Hall of Fame.
May 8, 2008 ABC Rural News reporters visited PCA's new Taylors Park farm at Katherine recently and have posted some great photographs on the Internet to record the historic first harvest.
May 2, 2008 A special afternoon tea was held at PCA this week for a familiar face around the office.
Kimberley Reynolds has completed her traineeship and has now officially begun work as Administration Assistant.
Kimberley began a 12-month traineeship at PCA arranged by Wide Bay Group Training on July 7 last year. During this time she successfully completed a Certificate III in Business Administration at the Kingaroy TAFE College.
April 29, 2008 At the PCA Board meeting on 21 April it was decided that the proposed Rights Issue to shareholders be increased from one new share for each two shares held to two new shares for each three shares held.
PCA Chairman Ian Langdon has written to shareholders to explain the the reasons behind this decision.
 April 28, 2008 PCA, the Grains Research Development Corporation (GRDC) and the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPI&F) have signed an agreement which will ensure the continuation of the important Australian Peanut Breeding Program.
PCA General Manager for Breeding and Crops Dr Graeme Wright (pictured at right at the 2008 variety trial site at the Bundaberg DPI&F) said today PCA would lead the joint program and would be contributing significant resources as well as germplasm.
The project has brought together elite varieties that PCA has imported from US programs and DPI&F varieties which have been bred and developed over more than 30 years of research in Queensland.
"This is a good result for everyone," Dr Wright said.
April 17, 2008 We all know Americans take their food seriously ... and there's nothing more serious than a great recipe for peanut butter cookies.
But is it worth one million dollars? You can be the judge!
 April 16, 2008 The first peanuts from PCA's new Taylors Park property at Katherine in the Northern Territory began rolling into Kingaroy last Saturday. Since then, the employees in the Intake area have been run off their feet as truckloads of peanuts from the NT, ( right), have been queueing to unload every day. Each trailerload from the NT is carrying approximately 18 tonnes of peanuts and PCA staff in Kingaroy expect to receive at least nine trailers each day from Katherine as the threshing moves from paddock to paddock.
April 16, 2008 PCA Director Brett Heading has been invited to take part in the Australia 2020 ideas summit to be held in Canberra next weekend.
The summit has been convened by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to help shape a long-term strategy for the nation’s future.
It will bring together some of the best and brightest brains from across the country to tackle the long term challenges confronting Australia’s future, challenges which the Federal Government believes require long-term responses beyond the usual three year electoral cycle.
April 2, 2008 PCA Chairman Ian Langdon has written to shareholders following the March 2008 Board Meeting. Key issues:- Appointment of Ian Langdon as Chairman of PCA (in place of Brett Heading who remains a Director)
- Update on proposed Rights Issue
- Board's announcement to defer ASX listing
February 25, 2008 The 2008 peanut harvest is looking good despite a reduction in planting in traditional growing areas and surprisingly heavy rain.
PCA Farming Services Manager Pat Harden told the ABC this week that fewer peanuts had been planted in the South Burnett but the peanuts that had been planted were "looking good".
In fact the yield potential in Kingaroy could be the best since 2004.
"We haven't got it in the bin but it looks a lot better than the last three years," Pat said.
 February 20, 2008 PCA has continued its unparalleled investment in the Australian peanut industry with $1.15 million upgrades at its Kingaroy processing plant. This is in addition to the company's multi-million dollar investments at Katherine in the Northern Territory.
 December 10, 2007 Former DPI&F Pulse Team Leader Dr Graeme Wright, ( right), has joined PCA to head up the company's peanut breeding program. He will also be co-ordinating research and development into other crops which PCA is investigating including potatoes, maize and sesame. Dr Wright began work at the DPI&F in 1986 and was stationed in Kingaroy for most of the time working on peanut agronomy, physiology and breeding. Recently the DPI&F has been changing its focus away from crops and industries that have smaller value to concentrate more on crops that have larger overall crop value, including feed grains, cotton, sorghum and maize.
 December 10, 2007 PCA's Export Team is celebrating following success at two recent awards events.
At the 2007 Queensland Japan Chamber of Commerce & Industry Export Awards, PCA was presented with the Agribusiness trophy.
Pictured at right: Business Development Manager Daniel Cook, Dispatch & Cool Stores Manager Neville Gill, Export & Planning Manager Michelle Gilchrist and Raw Plant Manager Chris Seng with the awards certificates and trophy.
PCA Managing Director Bob Hansen was congratulated at the awards ceremony by Japanese Consul-General Mr Hajime Nishiyama and Queensland Trade Minister Mr John Mickel.
 November 9, 2007 Peanut growers were invited last week to inspect the Colombo peanut thresher which was successfully trialled in the Bundaberg region this year.
The four-row tractor-drawn thresher has been purchased by Bundaberg Sugar.
Growers were briefed about the machine by Colombo Export Manager Aldemiro Bignarde, (right), who flew to Australia from Brazil for the whistlestop visit.
Aldemiro also spoke to peanut growers at Kingaroy, Emerald and Tolga.
 November 8, 2007 PCA was presented with the Corporate Citizen Award at the 2007 Kingaroy Chamber of Commerce and Industry Business Awards on Saturday night. Member for Nanango Dorothy Pratt MP presented Company Secretary David Clark with the trophy, ( right). PCA won the award for its ongoing support of community events such as the Peanut Festival and the Kingaroy Wine and Food in the Park Festival as well as its support for local sporting groups, charities and Kingaroy Youth Park. Another Kingaroy icon, The Peanut Van, was presented with a Highly Commended certificate in the same category.
September 4, 2007 The Food Industries Association of Queensland invited PCA to address a recent Food Matters seminar held at Northgate in Brisbane.
General Manager Technical Services Kevin Norman spoke about the functional benefits of adding peanuts to a healthy diet.
 August 15, 2007 The Northern Territory government fully supports PCA's new Katherine farm project, NT Department of Primary Industries, Fisheries and Mining Minister Chris Natt (pictured at right with PCA Managing Director Bob Hansen) said today.
This is in line with the NT government's intentions to develop food production in the Katherine region to create development, increase employment opportunities and supply food products to drought-ravaged southern Australia.
PCA believes the Northern Territory could one day be the saviour for Australia's peanut industry, eventually supplying enough peanuts to meet domestic demand and eliminate the need for costly imports.
 August 15, 2007 PCA is in the final stages of negotiating the purchase of an 11,000ha property in the Northern Territory to help meet Australia's annual demand for peanuts, PCA Chairman Brett Heading (pictured at right with PCA Managing Director Bob Hansen) announced at an informal meeting of shareholders in Kingaroy on June 25.
The meeting was held to brief South Burnett shareholders in the lead up to PCA's Annual General Meeting which will be held in Brisbane on July 30.
PCA has already approached South Burnett farmers and their families who may be interested in relocating to the Northern Territory to contract farm the property, which is located not far from PCA's current Katherine farm.
July 30, 2007 People are the most unique asset a company has ... this was the message from PCA Chairman Brett Heading at the recent dinner for long-serving PCA employees held in Kingaroy.
"How extraordinary it is to have a workforce where more than 25 per cent have been here for more than 10 years. Many companies would kill to have that retention rate!" Mr Heading said.
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