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CBH opens new Esperance fertiliser facility

Grain Central, June 2, 2022

CBH Group’s new Esperance fertiliser facility. Photo CBH Group

WESTERN Australia’s CBH Group has officially opened its new 20,000-tonne fertiliser storage facility in Esperance, with the co-operative aiming to fill the gap in the state’s supply of inputs.

CBH chair Simon Stead said the milestone was an exciting step towards delivering significant benefits to WA grain growers.

“As a core function of the co-operative, CBH Fertiliser is committed to delivering on the strategy of reducing grower’s on-farm input costs and improving the consistency of fertiliser supply in Western Australia,” Mr Stead said.

“The opening of our new Esperance facility will enable us to bring surety of supply to Esperance growers and bring further competitiveness to the market.”

Head of fertiliser David Pritchard said CBH was best placed to fill the demand of WA growers.

“Given the remoteness of the Esperance Port Zone, we believe there is a gap in the market from a supply and pricing perspective,” Mr Pritchard said.

“We have also seen demand for fertiliser, particularly nitrogen, grow exponentially in recent years, with the existing market struggling to keep pace during key times.

“We hope to execute 25,000t at the site this year, which will enable us to get the process right and get growers comfortable with new competition.”

Located 3.5 kilometres north-west of the Esperance Port on Flinders Circuit in Chadwick, the facility is owned by Qube and operated by CBH Fertiliser.

The warehouse is designed for fertiliser storage, blending and loading of trucks with a full range of granular phosphates, nitrogen, potash and sulphur products.

CBH Fertiliser has installed Yargus blending equipment to allow for blending of multiple products plus additives such as liquid copper, zinc and fungicides.

Designed with segregations inside, the facility includes a drive-through undercover area for trucks, a CBH owned-and-operated front-end loader and a weighbridge to allow for greater control of costs and efficiencies at the site.

Despite a volatile global fertiliser market from a price and supply perspective, CBH Fertiliser has worked hard to ensure all shipments contracted for 2022 arrive safely and on time.

“We strongly believe that we have set the benchmark for urea pricing across the past few months and are happy to share this pricing with growers to continually challenge input costs,” Mr Pritchard said.

Source: CBH Group

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