Farmer Jim Evans (left) brought in a load of lentils to kick off Bunge receivals for the 2025-26 harvest, and is pictured with Bunge Thevenard employees Chris Hibbs and Andrew Pearson. Photo: Bunge

DELIVERIES from South Australia’s harvest have officially kicked off, as marked by Bunge’s first weekly harvest report issued today.

The October 13 delivery was a load of lentils into its terminal at Thevenard on Eyre Peninsula’s western shore, followed on Thursday by a load of barley into Arno Bay on eastern EP.

In the week to October 19, 1131 tonnes in total of barley and lentils were delivered to Bunge SA’s sites, all in its Western region.

Bunge director of industrial management Gavin Cavanagh said the deliveries signal a positive start to a more favourable season than last year for most farmers across SA and western Victoria.

“Crop production for South Australia and Victoria is expected to be close to average, at around 9 million tonnes produced in each state, which is a good result given the record dry start to the year and the smaller 2024-25 harvest,” Mr Cavanagh said in the report.

“However we recognise that some areas, including parts of the Murray Mallee, are unfortunately expecting lower production than average.”

Table 1: Bunge receivals for the 2025-26 harvest to October 19. Source: Bunge

Bunge is now the owner and operator SA and western Vic sites formerly operated by Viterra following the completion of the Bunge-Viterra merger.

The bulk handlers annual investment program spent $65 million, and included four new drive-over hopper stackers across the Bunge network, a second inwards weighbridge at Tailem Bend, and an additional classification office at Wudinna to support lentil deliveries.

Structural upgrades have been made to bunkers at the Wallaroo, Snowtown, Werrimull, Kimba, Lock, Cummins and Wudinna sites.

At Port Giles, upgraded bunkers are set to provide additional storage capacity, and roadworks and infrastructure upgrades, such as shed sealing at Keith, have occurred at several sites.

Bunge has engaged 1500 workers for this harvest, and has more than 6Mt of forward shipping capacity booked to evidence strong buyer demand for new-crop grain across its network.

“Heading into harvest with strong forward demand gives our farmer customers confidence that buyers are ready to purchase their grain when they deliver it to us.”

Following the Bunge-Viterra merger, the company in Australia alone has 55 sites and six port terminals across SA and western Victoria; three sites, including the Bunbury port terminal in southern WA, two import facilities in Vic and New South Wales; and eight offices spread across the country in key growing regions.

Source: Bunge