Historical wheat shipping ends CBH’s 85-year export monopoly in WA Port

In what is considered a sign of growing competition in the $ 10 billion export grain industry of West -Australia, the first shipping of wheat that Geraldton was independent of the CBH group left last night.

CBH is the largest agricultural cooperative in Australia and is the most important grain handler in WA and exports most of the average annual annual of 16 million tons of crop from the state.

Over the past 85 years, only grain had exported from Geraldton, 420 kilometers north of Perth.

But after two years of planning, a group of farmers and Andrew Young from Plum Grove Logistics successfully loaded CBH aside and loaded 6,800 tonnes with the help of a mobile conveyor belt in the Port of Geraldton.

“Various attempts have been made in the last decade, but I understand that this is the first successful attempt to meet wheat [at Geraldton] Outside the CBH system, “said Mr. Young.

The grain is on its way to a flower mill in Indonesia.

Geraldton sees the shipping to other ports, such as Albany, Esperance and Bunbury, where export is carried out independently of CBH.

“This is something that happens throughout the industry,” said Mr. Young.

“It is a common feature on the east coast. There are around 11 mobile chargers that are active throughout the country.”

Disrupt the normal export path

WA exports around 90 percent of its grain crop through BulkeXport to more than 30 countries around the world.

The CBH group is owned by WA growers and has investments along the Graan Supply Chain.

But some farmers are dissatisfied at the expense of exporting grain and have their eyes on other export paths.

In a statement, CBH said it was aware of the Mission of Plum Grove.

“Our focus is on unloading last year’s crop and maintaining a high level of service to our customers around the world, while offering value to WA growers,” was the explanation.

“We are also preparing for the coming harvest and investing considerably in the network, so that it can deal with consistent and sustainable increasing crop sizes.”

Mr Young would not be attracted by the economic results of the trial shipping of Geraldton, but said that farmers had saved money compared to the usual CBH path.

“It’s not something that is simple – you must get your export accreditation, you must receive approvals for the environment,” he said.

“You have to work with the port authority and they have been very cooperative, but there are problems with a number of fronts that manage these types of exercises.”

Healthy competition

WA Farmers Grains Section President Mark Fowler said that an injection of competition into the northern end of the grain Supply Chain and export space was good for WA growers.

“I am usually talking about CBH here, but improved transparency, it makes the monopoly harder.

“I know a few cases where those shipments have taken place and the prices available to growers have reflected that.”

Mr. Fowler said that the State would be expected to become more grain in the coming years, especially with the collapse of the WA shelf industry.

He said he did not think that the export independently of CBH would endanger the critical grain mass that was needed to continue his current service and plans for the future.

“The amount of ton we are talking about, I don’t think it will be considerable enough to undermine what CBH proposes to do with their reinvestment in the supply chain,” he said.

What kind of plum gross logistics now?

Mr. Young said there was ambition within the group of Mid West farmers to export more grain, but the first step was to revise the effectiveness of the process.

“The coming harvest would be a good opportunity, subject to that all things work well,” he said.

“It is a milestone, but at the same time there is enough work to do a test shipment to something that is more sustainable and can offer the opportunity for growers in the Geraldton zone.”