AvonPack is located about 120km east of Perth in the Avon region.

A NEW grain-packing facility at Grass Valley in Western Australia’s Avon region is bringing an east coast-style model to the west, aiming to create a marketplace that gives growers greater price competition without sacrificing supply chain efficiency.

Great Western Handling’s (GWH) facility, AvonPack, is the brainchild of WA-based managing director Tim Byass and director Umang Bagaria, a Sydney trader.

Both saw a gap in the supply chain driven by record WA crops and the lack of container-packing options.

“Years ago, we were just struggling to find consistency in the supply chain over here with just the limited amount of container packers and it’s very hard east coast companies to navigate their way around the CBH systems,” Mr Byass said.

“We thought there was probably enough scope between us to look at building a new site and then inviting some other exporters to use the facility.”

Mr Byass said the site would operate as a service-based facility, providing growers and traders with access to grain accumulation, container packing, transport and logistics services.

He said the facility’s location in the heart of the Wheatbelt positioned it to handle oats, canola, wheat, barley, lupins and the growing pulse sector.

Mr Bagaria said it would be open to all traders seeking a facility to export commodities from WA.

“The model of this project has been to provide access to every trader that could be east coast or west coast who would like to export out of and use and doesn’t have a home,” Mr Bagaria said.

“We also think that it’s a very good opportunity for farmers to have an alternative solution…for them to be able to find more traders to sell to and probably get a better realisation.”

Site infrastructure

Mr Byass said the facility had been designed to maximise efficiencies and address the bottlenecks the team had experienced while operating as traders.

“We’ve got six 650-tonne GSI silos…which is purely just for in and out.

“The container packing facility is on about three hectares of land and then adjoining that we have another 3ha which we do plan to put some bunker storage in the future to really increase those harvest receivables.

“We’ve also got three grain elevators there so we can be…packing one consignment of wheat for one customer and we can receive oats for another customer.

“We can also pack directly out of the truck into the containers, and we can bypass the silos altogether.”

Mr Byass said the site was also fitted with “the latest compliance and regulations in terms of a pneumatic spear to be able to sample all the way down to the bottom of the truck, and then a fully calibrated sampling station”.

“It is identical to what all the major bulk receivable sites in WA use.”

Central Wheatbelt MP Lachlan Hunter with Tim Byass officially opening AvonPack last month. Photo: Lachlan Hunter

Marketplace environment

As more volume moves through the site, Mr Byass said its aim is to create a marketplace environment that connects growers and exporters while encouraging greater competition.

The site is also listed on Clear Grain Exchange and uses the AgriChain platform to facilitate grain trading and supply chain management.

“If there’s enough container exporters using the facility and enough growers delivering into it, then we can create a marketplace, which is something that’s not done yet in Western Australia, fairly common on the east coast.”

Mr Byass said WA growers often missed out on a “more competitive pricing environment”, but the new model aimed to deliver greater competition without sacrificing the state’s typically lower storage-and-handling costs.

“We’re hoping to potentially give them the best of both worlds where they can have access to more exporters and more prices, but then also not have to pay the increase in the storage and handling.”

Grower feedback

The team had a “soft opening” of the facility last month inviting growers and farmer brokers to the site to view the infrastructure.

Mr Bagaria said the response had been “very supportive”.

“We got an absolutely outstanding…review from them because they’re always looking for a new space, for more liquidity, for more transactional transparency as well.”

He said the plan was to do more trials before offering the site to traders.

“We’ve really not gone out to any of the new traders to give them open space at the moment, only because we want to first make sure that our trials are good.”

He said the goal was to complete these dry runs and trials before being fully operational in September.

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