Western Australia grain harvest accelerates, nears end

CBH has now received 11.2 million tonnes at its statewide storage system, up 950,000 tonnes from a week ago, with the intake volume increasing from the previous week.

CBH' intake into its storage system is all but finished in the northern Geraldton zone, with receivables likely to exceed a 2005-06 harvest record of 2.6 million tonnes.

"We've taken in around five times the amount of grain we received last year," with a little more expected in the next two weeks, CBH Geraldton zone manager Duncan Gay said in a weekly harvest report.

CBH owns Western Australia's upcountry grain storage and export network and expects to receive about 12 million tonnes of winter grains this harvest, well above the 2007 harvest of 8.5 million tonnes, but down from a record of 14.7 million tonnes in 2003. About 70 percent of the total is usually wheat and 20 percent barley.

Fine weather likely will ensure the harvest ends in the central Kwinana zone in the next week, the report said.

In CBH southern Albany zone, the harvest continues - though high moisture levels in the morning is still frustrating growers. Most of the rest of the harvest will be finished within two weeks, with just a trickle coming in after that, zone manager Richard Simonaitis said in the harvest report.

CBH doesn't own the grain it receives for storage and export. Rather, growers warehouse it in the system - some taking advantage of 21 days free warehousing - as they decide where and when to sell it, or assign it to a collective sales pool manager. Nearly all the grain produced in the state is exported.