Cropping

WA harvest breaks record

Henry Wells, January 9, 2017

WESTERN Australia’s 2016-17 harvest receivals are “well over 16 million tonnes” and rising, breaking the previous WA record of 15.8MT set in 2013/14, according to CEO of the state’s bulk handler, CBH Group, Andy Crane.

Receivals from the current harvest are still flowing into sites in the southern WA grainbelt.

The new state record harvest, which is not likely to be finalised until late January, has come in spite of severe frosts in September which decimated some crops and impacted yields in many districts.

WA’s harvest receivals eclipsed the 2013/14 total on December 29.

CBH’s Albany zone manager Greg Thornton before Christmas said total receivals in that zone reached 2.7MT with a further 300,000t to 400,000t expected to be delivered.

“Whilst growers in the north and east of the zone have either completed or are close to finishing harvest programs, many in the west of the zone will still be harvesting well into the New Year,” Mr Thornton said.

“Despite the recent rain event where 15 to 70 millimetre falls were experienced, quality has continued to hold up very well.”

In southern Australia storms over South Australia’s central and eastern regions after Christmas interrupted harvest for a few days, but harvesting is continuing with dry and warm-to-hot conditions in most regions.

As of today, receivals totalled 11.9MT at GrainCorp sites in NSW, Victoria and Queensland, and in South Australia exceeded 7.5MT, according to its bulk handler, Viterra harvest report in the first week of January.

The Australia-wide total among these three bulk handlers was 35.1MT in early January, compared with 26MT in mid-December.

Viterra offset last-half December inflows of 1.4MT with more than 860,000t export shipments in December, of which more than 350,000t was from Port Lincoln terminal, its record monthly export volume.

SA Viterra summary receivals (tons) week ending 1 January 2017

  week ending 1 Jan 2017 ytd total since 3 Oct 2016
SA total 1,403,043 7,499,814
Western 216,127 3,122,892
central 828,319 3,097,905
eastern 358,597 1,279,017

 

Graincorp summary week ending January 9 2017 focussed on fresh receivals in Victoria amounting to 354,000t, while activities in NSW and Queensland focus more on outload as receivals pace winds into post-harvest intake mode.  Victorian Graincorp sites have received around three times the quantity of grain received the previous year, and are continuing to receive.

 

Since previous report (tons) Total this season (tons)
Queensland 700 1,785,700
New South Wales 45,300 6,547,900
Victoria 354,000 3,566,400
TOTAL 400,000 11,900,000

 

 

HAVE YOUR SAY

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Your comment will not appear until it has been moderated.
Contributions that contravene our Comments Policy will not be published.

Comments

Get Grain Central's news headlines emailed to you -
FREE!