CBH said despite weather interruptions in the Central Wheatbelt zone, sites took a record one-day receival of 525,035 tonnes, surpassing the previous record set in 2014 by over 15,000 tonnes.
General Manager, Operations, David Capper said things have finally started to pick up in the Esperance and Albany zones, with both receiving more than 600,000 tonnes this week.
"It's shaping up to be a larger than expected harvest, with Geraldton zone already exceeding its total receivals estimate this week," he said.
"Improvements we have made to inloading capacity, and the take-up of the Carter's Delivery Form (CDF) app this harvest is helping to get the large tonnages through efficiently, which is evidenced by the amount of receival records being broken across the network."
The cooperative said as the harvest is now approximately two thirds complete with over 10 million tonnes being received, the logistical exercise of moving grain to port for the summer shipping program has begun in earnest.
"The WA shipping stem has more than two million tonnes, valued at more than $300 million forecast to be shipped in December and the first half of January, which is potentially a record," CBH said in a statement.
"The trade has been looking to cover these positions across both barley and wheat as the late harvest has seen growers selling later than usual," it said.
CBH reported the barley market malting/feed spread continued to wind in with malting barley only an $8-10 per tonne premium above feed, with second grade malt now trading at parity to feed.
"Malting percentage of the total receivals to date continues to remain at about 35 per cent which is in line with previous seasons," CBH stated.
"However, with uncertainty in the market the demand for malt has been soft reflecting the lower premium. As a whole, demand for barley has been lumpy with some of the trade paying a slight premium to cover existing business to be shipped in late December or early January," it said.
"Feed barley values are at levels close to where the trade see the next Saudi tenders however this is not expected for some weeks. As the barley harvest begins to slow, we think growers will hold some of their malting stocks, looking for higher values later in the year."
CBH said canola pricing remained in the $570 per tonne range this week with the trade looking to cover interest from European crushers.
"Prompt positions appear to have been filled and now Europe is looking for positions in the deferred months which should ensure grower pricing remains close to existing levels."
