Harvesting barley this week at the Field Applied Research Crop Technology Centre at Millicent in SA’s South East. Photo: FAR Australia

DELIVERIES to Viterra sites in South Australia and western Victoria have slowed as harvest nears its end, with receivals to December 31 at 5.41 million tonnes (Mt).

In its last harvest report for the period, Viterra said it received 329,340t in the last fortnight of the year, with wheat the major commodity.

“We saw some severe weather over the festive period that slowed deliveries at some sites, including localised thunder and lightning activity,” Viterra general manager operations Gavin Cavanagh said.

Viterra supply chain manager Derek Robjohns said Viterra’s employees continued loading vessels across five of the company’s six export terminals over the Christmas period.

“We loaded close to 350,000t on to vessels during the past two weeks, loading at Thevenard, Port Lincoln, Wallaroo, Inner Harbour and Outer Harbor,” Mr Robjohns said.

“The weather we experienced created some challenges for shipping, but our employees have done a fantastic job working through loading vessels as efficiently as possible when conditions are safe.”

Table 1: Deliveries to Viterra as at 31 December, 2023.

As of December 31, Viterra had loaded more than 1.68Mt on to vessels for the 2023-24 season.

Southern Australian growers’ grain has headed to 19 countries from Viterra’s ports so far this season.

“Of the vessels we have loaded, a large number have been destined for China and a significant amount of this grain loaded has been barley.”

“It’s been fantastic to see barley exports to China return since the country’s removal of its tariff on the commodity last year.

“We look forward to continuing exports to international destinations as we carry out our busy booked shipping schedule.

Now that its harvest reporting period is over, Viterra will release its first monthly receivals report for 2023-24 in the week commencing February 5.

Source: Viterra