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Why Rich Lister Tony Denny swapped used cars for farming

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Car dealer turned property developer Tony Denny has shifted his attention to farming in the next chapter of a colourful business career.

The Rich Lister who made his fortune selling cars in Europe is a qualified horticulturist and a major backer of ASX-listed crop nutrient play RLF Agtech. Mr Denny said improving and expanding food production would be critical in the decades ahead and that “smart” crop nutrients would have a big role.

Former car dealer and qualified horticulturist Tony Denny behind the wheel of a tractor on his NSW farm. 

RLF is his only investment in agriculture so far, apart from a small farm in NSW he refers to as his rural retreat.

The potential to boost yields and improve soil health caught his eye, but he also sees huge potential for farmers to develop new income streams through carbon credits.

RLF outlined big ambitions after listing in April last year and already has a footprint in Asian markets, including a manufacturing plant and 120 staff on the ground in the Chinese province of Henan, about 700 kilometres south-west of Beijing.

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The Perth-headquartered company boasts that its crop nutrition technology, developed in Australia, can boost yields and quality, reduce the need for bulk fertilisers and improve moisture retention in root systems.

Mr Denny said he was using his contacts in eastern Europe, gained through his days in the used car business, to help RLF with sales to big and small farming operations.

Australian success story

He sold the Prague-based car dealership he founded to Polish private equity firm Abris Capital Partners for $320 million in 2014 and has since become involved in property development and non-bank lending.

“At a global level, sustainability and food security are absolutely critical issues for us all – as individuals and a nation. The fact that RLF is an important Australian R&D and export success story also struck a strong chord with me,” he said.

RLF chief executive Ken Hancock said its customers were a mix of wheat, rice, corn, cotton, soya bean growers and livestock producers looking to improve pastures. He said most of RLF’s flagship products were applied through the seed and also through foliage.

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One of its biggest customers in Asia grows cotton across 138,000 hectares, and RLF is aiming to crack the market in large-scale Australian grain growing operations with a kick along from carbon credits.

RLF is targeting revenue through the generation of Australian carbon credit units and in March launched a 5000-hectare pilot program aimed at having its methodology accredited and carbon projects registered under the federal government’s Emission Reduction Fund.

Mr Denny said RLF’s move to target carbon credits came after he invested but was “incredibly interesting”.

“The reality is that nearly all broad acre farmers in Australia could potentially be involved in generating carbon credits, and that is a very big plus for the agricultural sector and the nation,” he said.

Brad Thompson writes across business and politics from Western Australia for The Australian Financial Review. Brad is based in our Perth bureau. Connect with Brad on Twitter. Email Brad at brad.thompson@afr.com

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