COMPANY CHARGES

Fees

To join the Company, you must purchase 100 shares. These shares can be obtained from the Company, or from an existing shareholder who may have shares surplus to his needs. The contact details, of shareholders who have shares for sale, may be obtained from the Company office.

In addition, an administration charge of $55 Including GST, to cover internal processing costs, is payable upon application to join the Company.

Charges

The Company's operations are funded through grower charges levied against fruit graded and packed on behalf of growers. This is the Company's only source of revenue. The ownership of all fruit processed remains with the grower until sold through the pooling system. At no stage does the Company assume ownership of growers' fruit or profit from its sale.

Two levels of charges apply:

for fruit processed on behalf of members of the Company; and
for fruit processed on behalf of non-members.

In order to provide full accountability on revenue appropriation the Company operates a Standard Costing System. This system uses four Activity Based Cost Centres to which all of our direct and indirect costs are allocated.

These cost centres are:
On-Farm Collection.
Processing.
Packaging.
Direct Distribution Costs.

Example -

To assist in understanding how a Standard Costing System works, consider the following example based on the 'On-Farm Collection' cost centre.

'On-Farm Collection' covers all costs incurred in the collection of a grower's fruit from the farm and its cartage to the packhouse. For those more remote collection points the actual cost will be higher than for those nearer. Additionally, if multiple bins are collected from the one point, the actual cost per bin will be lower than if only one bin was collected. The Standard Costing System averages all actual "On-Farm Collection' costs and a nominal per bin charge applied. This is called the Standard Cost.

Benefits

The Standard Costing System is used to more clearly justify the level of charges and provide full accountability in their application. It allows for better management reporting and control of all costs associated with the running of our business.
The Standard Costing System not only provides us with a transparent and equitable process for levying Grower Charges, it encourages management to have a greater focus on costs generally, which contributes towards improved cost control.

Allocation of Costs

The following table shows the allocation of costs to the various Activity Based Cost Centres.

Cost Centre	Fixed Cost Items	Variable Cost Items

On-Farm Collection	On-Farm Bin Delivery On-Farm Bin Collection	Distance Travelled to Farm Distance Travelled to Packhouse Number of Bins Carried
Processing	All Pack house Direct Costs Administration Indirect Costs	Packhouse Labour Certain Packhouse Direct Costs
Packaging	Sticker Guns Pallet Hire	Trays, Cartons, Liners Stickers Pallet Wrapping/Corners Tape Consumables (Sportak etc.)
Direct Distribution	Direct Sales Promotional Activity	Outward Freight Industry Levies Direct Promotional Activity Costs Bad Debt Provision DPI Inspection

Schedule of Charges -

For information regarding Processing and Packaging costs, please log in to the Growers Member section or contact our Nambour Office on (07) 5441 3699.