Rural retailing is just as challenging as ever, but for MIA Rural, the keys to long-term survival are the commitment to helping local farmers succeed, quick and ready access to a range of effective products and the support of professional suppliers such as Farmoz.
That’s the approach of Mario Pasqualotto, Sales and Marketing Manager at MIA Rural and an industry veteran who joined MIA Rural more than 30 years ago.
While reliable rainfall is just as elusive as ever, Mario says the fundamentals of farmer purchasing patterns have changed in recent years, placing extra demands on suppliers to be more responsive and more flexible than ever.
“That’s why we like doing business with Farmoz,” he said.
“They have good people, the molecules that suit our business and flexible supply arrangements.
“This includes a local distribution point for Farmoz stock here in Griffith, which really suits our business.”
Mario said growers were less likely to purchase ahead, preferring to source most of their inputs at short notice, depending on the way the season played out.
“Growers caught short by rising fertiliser and glyphosate prices last year now buy stocks as they need them, so we are running a different business today.
”It means we need more support from suppliers such as Farmoz to maintain sufficient stocks on hand locally, to supply products on the spot or with only one or two days’ notice.”
Owned by Roy and Heather Hosking since 1983, MIA Rural is a big operation in southern New South Wales, with 22 employees at four branches at Griffith, Leeton, Coleambally and Hay.
Its origins stem back to the 1930s when Griffith fruit growers decided to set up a local operation to sell their produce. The business expanded into farm inputs some years later and was bought out by Shell Chemicals in the 1960s.
The business supplies farmers involved in winter cereals, horticultural crops like vines, citrus and vegetables, and when there’s water for irrigation, summer crops such as intensive pastures, rice, cotton and maize.
After training with Shell Chemicals, Mario returned to Griffith to join MIA Rural in 1983.
He has worked with a host of suppliers over the years, so values the ease of communications and responsiveness of Farmoz people like Rod East, who manages the MIA Rural account and heads up the Farmoz business in Victoria and Tasmania.
“If we have concerns or questions, it’s good to know Rod and his team will get back to us quickly,” he said.
“We also appreciate the responsiveness of the Farmoz supply chain team, recognising that growers want their inputs faster than ever.
“Farmoz has the backing of the world’s sixth largest farm chemical supplier and the global leader in generic crop protection chemistry, giving us confidence in the longer term.”
Mario said Farmoz products like Captan, Axiom MZ (metalaxyl and mancozeb) and Afalon (linuron) had an important fit into the MIA Rural product range.
“We like to recommend Captan in grapes for controlling mildews and botrytis, while Axiom is a valuable fungicide using different chemistry for managing downy mildew outbreaks in grapes and vegetables, particularly when we get rain in November and December,” he said.
“Meanwhile, as an IHD member, we have exclusive access to Afalon from Farmoz, which is great for controlling broadleaf weeds in carrots and other vegetables.
“Farmoz provides high quality formulations which work well for our growers.
“One or two big-name brands in crop protection still hold their own, but they are the exception these days.”
Mario said growers continued to rely on product recommendations from MIA Rural.
“Growers accept our recommendations willingly, but we recognise that we live on our long-term reputation,” he said.
“At the end of the day, our growers need to produce good crops, so MIA Rural continues to be successful in the longer term.”
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