A STATEMENT from the Australian Government’s Department of Agriculture and Water Resources on Friday afternoon confirmed a further two shipments of Canadian wheat into Australia have been approved:
The statement said:
The department has today issued two permits to an Australian importer for single imports of bulk wheat from Canada, subject to strict conditions to manage any biosecurity risk.
Each permit is for one consignment loaded on a single ship.
Details of the importer is commercial in confidence.
The decision to import grain is a commercial decision by the importer. The department’s decision to approve an import permit for bulk grain is based solely on whether the biosecurity risks can be managed.
The department has received 11 applications to import bulk grain from the USA and Canada. The applications cover canola, wheat, corn, and sorghum.
Three permits have been issued and the other applications are in varying stages of assessment.
The department has published a statement on the strict requirements which must be complied with to manage the biosecurity risks associated with imported grain:http://agriculture.gov.au/
Though the statement is devoid of detail which might breach confidentiality, trade sources said the permits were the next two in an ongoing shipment program for Manildra’s starch gluten plant near Nowra, and would be discharged through the Port Kembla Quattro terminal; a vessel loaded in Canada mid-May and a second over the weekend, both scheduled for a June discharge in Port Kembla.
The decision to import (or not) should be a commercial decision, but all decisions of the import sort involve risk. Risk that if not managed properly could have enormously detrimental commercial impacts on our industry. What better way to manage that risk by ensuring a proper, fit for purpose stocks reporting scheme is in place so that the industry is only exposed to import risk if we don’t have domestic stocks. We should have a stocks reporting system as the basis to managing import risk in these (and future) dry times. We need to keep the industries that intensively use grain operational by ensuring grain availability for other commercial reasons – they underpin the market in more normal times. It does seem unnecessary though in my view to expose the broader industry to imports without first knowing whether we have suitable domestic supplies to cover their demand.