THE festive season proved to be a bumper delivery period for growers with 1.79 million tonnes (Mt) delivered into the Viterra network between December 19 and January 1.
Viterra is South Australia’s largest bulk handler by far and also operates sites in western Victoria.
Its total receivals for the 2022-23 harvest to January 1 were 6.93Mt.
Despite deliveries slowing at some sites as growers wrapped up harvest, Viterra general manager operations Gavin Cavanagh said it had been a busy fortnight across the network.
“Our highest receival day was on Monday 19 December with 260,000t received into our network,” Mr Cavanagh said.
“This was our largest day this harvest and also since the 2017-18 season.
“We worked closely with our grower customers who were harvesting throughout the Christmas period, which included opening a number of our sites on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
“We thank our employees for their continued hard work to receive large volumes safely and efficiently in a season that continues to break records.”
In the days leading up to Christmas, growers broke Viterra’s season records at its Bute site in the Central region and Lock in the Western region.
Growers also broke daily receival records at Crystal Brook in Viterra’s Central region on December 19, and at our Eastern region’s Wolseley site on December 29 and Tailem Bend site on two consecutive days, December 18 and 19.
Biggest ever month
December was a milestone month for the Viterra network with growers delivering a record breaking 5.2M into sites.
“This is a fantastic achievement by our employees who have managed our busiest ever month while providing a high level of service to our grower customers.
“It’s also a credit to growers who have worked hard to harvest their crop quickly once the weather permitted.
“Thank you to our grower customers for their continued support and for helping us achieve this amazing milestone.”
Viterra’s harvest shipping program has also enjoyed a busy few weeks with employees loading over 905,000t on to vessels in December, making it the company’s second-largest month for shipping.
Included in the December total was a record-breaking 130,000t of grain loaded on to ships at Viterra’s Thevenard port.
Viterra has now loaded a total of more than 1.1Mt of grain on to vessels this season.
Fortnight to Jan 1 | Harvest to Jan 1 | |
Western region | 458,512 | 2,943,042 |
Central region | 840,652 | 2,647,480 |
Eastern region | 491,969 | 1,342,528 |
TOTAL TONNES | 1,791,133 | 6,933,050 |
Source: Viterra
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