Viterra employees Nick Pratt, Brenton Bascombe and Marlee Anderson with the first vessel loaded with new season grain at our Port Lincoln terminal. Photo: Viterra

RECEIVALS into Viterra’s South Australian-based network have passed the 2-million-tonne market following 207,392t delivered into the system in the week to Sunday.

Viterra general manager operations Gavin Cavanagh says activity slowed across the network following a big week prior.

“We saw deliveries to our sites decrease with scattered rain holding up growers who are still harvesting, and some wrapping up for the season,” Mr Cavanagh said.

“Wheat continues to make up more than half of the tonnes delivered, followed by canola then barley.

On Thursday, Viterra finished loading 33,000t of wheat to form its first new-crop cargo.

“It’s great to see the first vessel of local growers’ new-season grain leave our network from our Port Lincoln terminal and start its voyage to UAE,” Viterra general manager supply chain Derek Robjohns said.

“We also have four more vessels soon to arrive, two at Port Lincoln and two at Wallaroo, for another wheat shipment and early lentil shippings.

“We’ve liaised with our buyer customers to facilitate early lentil vessels from our Western and Central regions which supports the increase in plantings we saw this harvest.

“We’re continuing to work with our 45-plus buyer including 15 export customers this season to connect grower and buyer customers by matching market requirements with what has been produced.

“Another example of this is the change we made to our dynamic binning service for this season, to give growers a greater opportunity for an upgrade for loads outside of malt receival standards by increasing the Malt1 barley tolerances for retention, screenings and test weight while ensuring the stack still meets Malt1 standards.

“We were able to introduce this change with the support of our buyer customers to offer the chance for more growers to achieve a higher value for their barley this season, while ensuring we can continue to meet market requirements.”

Derek says Viterra has continued to support domestic demand while welcoming grower deliveries.

“We’re working with our buyer customers to fulfil domestic requirements as well as receiving grower deliveries and accumulating for vessels,” Derek says.

“Our whole team has done a fantastic job managing these requirements safely and efficiently.”

Source: Viterra