A NEW receival site constructed near the Western Australian port of Albany at Mirambeena took its first load on Tuesday, 55 metric tonnes of malting barley.

Co-operative Bulk Handling Ltd (CBH) had committed $750 million to improving its storage and handling network over five years, with dozens of improvements in the planning.

CBH general manager of operations, David Capper, said the Mirambeena site will improve service to growers delivering during harvest increase export capacity from Albany port.

With room to expand to 200,000mt the new 140,000mt site received its first 55mt this week near the port of Albany in WA’s Great Southern region.

“CBH’s decision to develop the new site was prompted by the significant growth in grain production in the Great Southern region in recent years; a trend that is expected to continue,” Mr Capper said in a statement.

“The Albany zone has been challenged by a lack of near-to-port harvest receival capacity which, in some cases, meant growers needed to travel inland to deliver to another receival site,” he said.

The $28 million development at the site has initial capacity of 140,000 tonnes made up of two 30,000 tonne open bulk heads and four 20,000 tonne cells, with space for expansion.

Harvest of canola and barley is well underway in the Albany zone, and wheat harvest is beginning to occur.  Frost had an impact particularly in the northern parts of the zone, affecting crop quality and yield.