Viterra Roseworthy assistant supervisor Josh East and operator Peter Mahoney at Rosweworthy, SA. Photo: Viterra

DELIVERIES to eastern Australia’s two biggest bulk handlers, GrainCorp and Viterra, have passed a combined 12 million tonnes (Mt), according to their latest harvest reports.

In the week to Sunday, GrainCorp received 1.4Mt of grain to lift its intake for the current harvest to 8.7Mt, while Viterra received almost 1Mt in the week to Monday to take its harvest receivals to 3.6Mt.

GrainCorp reports some of its NSW sites closed over the weekend in response to extreme temperatures and strong winds, while deliveries are mostly winding down now with some final activity in the south.

Harvest in Victoria has ramped up, with all regions now operating, and a slightly later start than anticipated for the southern-most clusters.

Table 1: GrainCorp receivals in the week and harvest to 30 November 2020.

SA swings into wheat

As the South Australian harvest moves from barley into wheat, wheat formed the bulk of deliveries to Viterra’s sites.

All 55 of Viterra’s sites, including two in Victoria, are now taking deliveries, now that its Frances site near the Victoria-SA border took in canola last Wednesday as its first load for the season.

“We had another good week last week, despite the weather causing problems for growers who had to work around both extremely hot days and cooler days with rain,” Viterra eastern region operations manager Jo Klitscher said.

“Sites are busy with lots of activity, and we are working hard managing outturns so we can continue to receive grain.”

Last Thursday was Viterra’s biggest receival day so far this harvest with more than 225,000t  delivered and two sites, Roseworthy and Port Lincoln, breaking their daily receival records.

Viterra western region operations manager Nick Pratt said this had been the third time this harvest that Port Lincoln had broken its receival record.

“It’s a fantastic achievement for our employees at the site who received 13,675t in one day.

“The most recent record breaker is even more impressive as the site was simultaneously loading vessels last week, as our busy shipping program commences.”

Viterra central region operations manager Jack Tansley said Roseworthy’s record-breaking day saw the site receive 17,156t to beat the previous record set during harvest in 2016-17.

“We’re making sure they’re getting turned around as quickly as possible while also maintaining our classification and quality standards so grain from our state continues to have access in as many domestic and export markets as possible.”

Table 2: Viterra harvest receivals to 29 November 2020.

Source: GrainCorp, Viterra

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