NSW grain deliveries down
Prolonged drought leads to 94 per cent decline
❝The GrainCorp network total as of Monday was 260,300 tonnes of grain, down 74 per cent on last year’s 1.12 million tonnes.
GRAIN deliveries to NSW receiver sites have dropped a whopping 94 per cent on the previous season, quantifying the effects of prolonged drought conditions in grain-producing regions.
But despite lowered Australian grain production estimates for this year, some grain receiver sites in South Australia and Western Australia have received more grain deliveries in the past weeks than at the same time last season.
While some bulk handlers are crediting the influx of grain to an earlier than usual start to harvest, without a national grain stocks reporting system it is difficult to tell how much of the delivered grain is from the 2018-19 versus stored grain from past seasons.
Bulk grain handler GrainCorp’s harvest update as of Monday reported 21,100 tonnes of grain delivered to NSW receiver sites, a mammoth decline on the 375,000 tonnes received by the same time last year.
Victorian grain deliveries to GrainCorp sites have dropped to 25,500 tonnes of grain, down 77 per cent from the 113,000 tonnes in November last year. Grain received at GrainCorp sites in Queensland total 46,700 tonnes, down 91 per cent on last year’s 524,000 tonnes by the same stage.
The GrainCorp network total as of Monday was 260,300 tonnes of grain, down 74 per cent on last year’s 1.12 million tonnes.
The harvest report noted a large share of grain production is expected to remain on-farm this season or delivered direct to domestic consumers given drought conditions.
In the west, WA bulk grain handler CBH has received 348,590 tonnes of grain for the season, down on the 414,033 tonnes received by the same point last year.
Grain deliveries to South Australian and western Victorian grain handler Viterra have increased by more than 32 per cent on last season.
Viterra sites received 203,855 tonnes of grain in the past week. In the corresponding week last year, Viterra received 153,396 tonnes.
A Viterra spokeswoman said the harvest continued to pick up pace, with more than 200,000 tonnes of grain arriving across its sites in the past week, bringing total receivals for the 2018-19 season to 258,000 tonnes.
“With the dry finish to the growing season in South Australia, many areas have started harvest earlier than normal,” the spokeswoman said. “Viterra is working closely with growers to provide a service that is flexible and has the ability to manage a range of volumes based on growers’ production.”
CBH general manager of operations David Capper said delays to the start of harvest were due to crops maturing inconsistently across WA.
“Showers are forecast over the next few days for parts of the state, so CBH is expecting some disruption to deliveries in some parts of the regions.”