Agribusiness buzz in brief

Significant discounts offered on remaining Holden vehicles have also caused a sales spike, although the struggling marque was only the 10th most popular seller last month.

The Holden Colarado ute and Holden Acadia SUV were two of Holden's best sellers.

In February the US parent company General Motors announced it would abandon the Australian brand by year's end.

The Australian Holden Dealers Council, representing about 185 dealerships, estimated only about 2000 more vehicles could be arriving in dealers' yards before stocks ran out.

In May they sold about 1609 vehicles.

Last month the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ordered General Motors Holden to extend its exit compensation negotiations with dealers "in good faith", after local dealers were angered about their New Zealand cousins being offered a better package.

The Brewers Association of Australia wants Canberra to put a cap on Australia's next six monthly beer tax rise, due in August.

"Now is not the time to be ramping up taxes on consumers," said chief executive officer Brett Heffernan.

"With more and more Aussies out of work and everyone counting their pennies, jacking up beer tax would be another blow to punters and publicans, alike.

"Tax accounts for 42 per cent of the price of a stubby. On a typical $52 carton, $22.05 goes to the taxman."

Australia had the fourth highest beer taxes in the industrialised world which last year generated $3.6 billion in government revenue.

GrainCorp's chief financial officer for the past decade Alistair Bell will leave the company next month, to be replaced by current commercial finance general manager Ian Morrison.

During his time with the grain marketing, logistics and processing business, Mr Bell (pictured) has overseen strategy, finance and treasury functions and significant repositioning of GrainCorp's portfolio including the demerger of United Malt and sale of its Bulk Liquid Terminals business.

"He is well known and respected in the company and the broader industry and it has been a pleasure working with him," said managing director, Robert Spurway.

Mr Morrison, joined GrainCorp in 2011 after working with KPMG in Australia and Britain and has been CFO of the grains division as well as overseeing information technology and shared services activities.

Profits from quick service restaurant chain McDonald's Australia dipped six per cent last year to about $303 million after tax from revenue of almost $1.7 billion.

McDonald's represents about 20pc of the Australian fast food industry, employing about 5376 full time equivalent staff at more than 1000 restaurants.

It paid $132m in tax, down slightly from $134m in 2018.

McDonald's Australia chief executive officer Andrew Gregory said this year's coronavirus emergency would result in a sales downturn because of the enforced closure of dine-in services, but the drop had been partially offset by strong drive-through and delivery sales via Deliveroo and Uber.