Less than a month after CBH confirmed the WA harvest broke records, 26 of GrainCorp’s country silos across Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales broke receival records.
NSW silos accounted for half of the record-breaking receival and Coonamble was the largest silo with nearly 400,000 tonnes of grain received.
Queenslan’s Thallon and NSW’s Walgett received nearly 300,000 tonnes, while other silos such as Barellan (NSW), Warracknabeal and Quambatook (both Victoria) are on the way to receiving close to 200,000 tonnes.
The 12Mt figure could increase further, with harvest in Victoria expected to continue up to Australia Day.
GrainCorp general manager of storage and logistics operations Nigel Lotz said some areas achieved high yields after extended drought, particularly north western New South Wales and western Victoria.
And there are reports of high grain quality, especially across canola and wheat.
Lotz said silos had undergone improvements in anticipation for a bumper harvest.
“The planning and resources needed to scale up by over 60 per cent compared to last year posed some challenges, however we were able to take full advantage of our network,” Lotz said.
“In recent years, our focus has been on developing larger and more efficient country silos that provide better turnaround times and more segregations for growers,” he said.
“Prior to harvest we spent $21 million on improvements, including new stackers and upgrading existing bunkers and equipment. We also boosted employment of harvest casuals by 60% to 3,000 roles compared to last year.”
GrainCorp’s focus will now turn to export, with over 1Mt already moved from silos to sub-terminals and ports.
“We have secured additional rail and road capacity to ship this grain, with the shipping stem heavily booked for the next six months,” Lotz said.
