CSD board members.

COTTON Seed Distributors held its 2023 annual general meeting on Tuesday at its headquarters at Shenstone in Wee Waa.

With 38 people in attendance, a range of reports were received at the meeting including the final managing director’s report from Peter Graham.

The 2022-2023 financial year was successful for CSD, and highlights include:

• CSD and CSIRO extending the Cotton Breeding Australia Joint Venture to 2034, providing research and capital commitment for our industry into the future;
• The business’ ability to navigate six flood events and multiple road closures to still produce over 8000 tonnes of cotton seed that allowed Australian growers to plant 568,322ha of cotton.
• $17 million reinvested in the business, including infrastructure and plant improvements in the form of improved water security for CSD Farms, improvements to fuzzy seed shed storage and the purchase of a cotton picker for CSD Farms.

At the closure of nominations for the two available director positions, Tony Quigley and Juanita Hamparsum were the only nominations received.

As the number of nominees was equal to the number of vacant positions, Mr Quigley and Mrs Hamparsum were re-elected to the board.

CSD chair Mr Quigley praised the CSD staff for the efforts over the past 12 months.

“The team have done an excellent job despite the challenging situations they have had to navigate,” Mr Quigley said.

“Each employee should be proud of the part they played in ensuring we delivered on our promise to Australian cotton growers”.

Mr Graham is to be replaced in the top role by Ian Taylor, who will start later this year as CSD’s chief executive officer.

Dr Taylor is currently the executive director of the Cotton Research and Development Corporation, and the CSD and CRDC boards will work closely together during this period of change to ensure a smooth transition.

“It has been a privilege to lead CSD for the last 21 years,” Mr Graham said.

“I have enjoyed each moment and am pleased to be leaving the business in such a strong position”.

Source: CSD