WA Harvest Update - WA Harvest one third complete

By: "Farm Tender" News
Cattle News
Nov 23, 2018
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OPERATIONS UPDATE

The 2018-19 harvest is around one third complete with 4,855,000 tonnes delivered, making up 32% of expected deliveries for the year. This compares similarly to last harvest when just over five million tonnes had been received at the same time.

“The first few weeks of harvest have definitely been a little patchy with wet and stormy weather holding up progress in several areas,” said General Manager, Operations, David Capper.

“Despite the weather we don’t believe that it will affect grain quality at this stage, and in some areas we are seeing better than expected yields which is promising for a great final harvest result.”

In contrast to the slower start that the two southern zones have had, Geraldton zone has received around 65% of its estimated tonnes already, with several sites coming close to breaking records for receivals.

ALBANY

The Albany zone is still having a much slower start to harvest than last year with 385,000 tonnes received so far, which is around 40% less than the same time in 2017.

“Delays to harvest are once again due to continuing poor weather conditions in the zone. The rain experienced recently is not expected to have an impact on quality at this stage,’ said Albany Zone Manager, Greg Thornton.

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The majority of receivals continues to be barley with 330,000 tonnes received and a good percentage of this making malt grades. Additional Planet segregations have also been introduced to cater for demand.

The zone has received 45,000 tonnes of canola and is also starting to see wheat deliveries in the northern areas of the zone.

ESPERANCE

Like Albany zone, the Esperance zone is still experiencing delays to harvest due to poor weather.

“Late last week we started to see some good tonnages being delivered however scattered showers again this week slowed things down again. Most of the canola has now been harvested and growers are moving on to barley and wheat,” said Esperance Zone Manager, Mick Daw.

GERALDTON

Geraldton zone has had a very busy week with total receivals to date moving over the 1.5 million tonne mark.

The zone received over half a million tonnes of grain this week, made up of mainly wheat and lupins as barley and canola is starting to slow down.

“This week we saw our Carnamah site break its receival record, reaching 10,601 tonnes on 20 November, and we have also seen many other sites come very close to breaking records,” said Geraldton Zone Manager, Duncan Gray.

“This week we will start to see some new season’s shipping which will be a welcome relief, but we will also start to see some sites become very tight for some services,” said Mr Gray.

KWINANA

The Kwinana zone experienced another rain event last Friday afternoon which slowed deliveries over the weekend and early into the week. Despite this the zone still had its best delivery week with over 1.1 million tonnes of grain received.

“We are now seeing all grain types come into the system as growers finish off barley and go on to wheat and oats,” said Kwinana Zone Assistant Manager, Allan Walker.

MARKET UPDATE

China has initiated an anti-dumping investigation regarding Australian barley in the Chinese market.

CBH is doing everything we can to work cooperatively with the Australian grain industry, the Australian Department Foreign Affairs (DFAT) and the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China (MOFCOM) to ensure a positive outcome for our ongoing grain trade relationship with China.

Australia has a long and respected grain trading history with China, specifically for barley.

Barley

As a result of the Chinese anti-dumping investigation announcement, barley values did come off some A$30 per tonne during the week as the market awaited further information on the announcement. This resulted in some active grower selling as growers sold directly off the header. The week ended with values to growers at A$300 per tonne free in store (FIS).

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Wheat

The later harvest is creating some challenges as the trade look to cover some of their early vessel requirements. This has seen the trade paying a premium to growers for specific grades for early transfer, to ensure vessels are shipped within their contract period. However, for standard grades like APW1 the market has remained relatively flat this week with an A$5-7 per tonne range in pricing around the A$340’s per tonne free in store (FIS).

Canola

Trade interest continued with the market both domestically and internationally interested in covering their requirements. Growers were reasonably active sellers with the market staying steady at A$573-575 per tonne free in store (FIS).

www.cbh.com.au