VITERRA has listed its Parilla grain receival and handling facility for sale, offering an opportunity for a local grower or agribusiness to make use of the site.
The 1.3-hectare site is located in South Australia’s Murray Mallee region, approximately 184km from Mildura and 230km from Port Adelaide.
It features 10,500 tonnes of storage capacity, 30t weighbridge with new load cells and a reconditioned weighbridge platform and site grading office.
The elevator has a loading and unloading capacity of 220t per hour.
A Viterra spokesperson said the Parilla site has not been operational for several years and the listing won’t impact grower services.
“It has been closed since 2020 and it does not play a role in the network,” the spokesperson said.
“The decision to close the site reflected the changing environment in the region and declining receivals into the site over an extended period.”
The Parilla site was one of 12 facilities which closed in 2020.
The others include Two Wells, Cowell, Mangalo, Murdinga, Tooligie, Gulnare, Mallala, Melrose, Tarlee, Coomandook and Murray Bridge.
In March 2020, Viterra operations manager Michael Hill said the sites would “not play a future role in our network”.
He said the other 55 sites which remained open in the 2020/21 harvest had “previously taken 97 percent of the total receivals”.
Two Wells transaction
Parilla is the second of the 12 sites to be listed for sale.
Viterra listed the Two Wells facility for sale in May 2022, with the site selling to a local company which operates heavy machinery.
Sold via CBRE, the site attracted very strong interest, and sold for more than $3 million.
Two Wells was larger than Parilla, at 21.15ha, and featured several sheds, weighbridge, site officer and 1.75ha of former bunker storage.
Despite this recent activity, Viterra has confirmed that it does not “have any current plans to list any of our other closed silos for sale”.
Other site closures
In 2019, as part of a further consolidation of the receival network, Viterra closed 17 sites across South Australia.
This decision was reportedly part of the company’s investment focus on larger sites.
Viterra estimated that the 17 sites represented less than 2pc of total receivals.
One of the facilities closed, located at Millicent, was listed for sale in July 2019.
Also handled by CBRE, the site featured 140,000t of grain storage in silos, bunkers and sheds as well as a weighbridge and 400t-per-hour elevator.
Business opportunity
The Millicent site, as well as a smaller facility, was purchased by the Squibb Group, South Australia’s only oilseed crushing operation owned by brothers Malcolm and Thomas Earl, for $1.75M.
The local growers expanded into crushing to value-add their canola crop.
They produce cold-pressed canola oil, under the Limestone Coast Oils label, as well as canola meal and stockfeed pellet mill.
Like previously listed Viterra sites, Parilla could attract interest from a variety of grains industry participants and agribusinesses.
It’s proximity to the Mallee Highway, Mildura and grain growing centres could make it an attractive opportunity for a new or expanding operation.
Viterra has listed Parillia through PropertyNow, an agent-assisted real estate service.
The company seeks all interested parties submit written offers for consideration.
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