February 14, 2007 

Australia's CBH to send second wheat cargo to Indonesia

A second licensed wheat shipment to Indonesia by Western Australian grain company Cooperative Bulk Handling Ltd., or CBH, is scheduled to leave Esperance port on Sunday, the company reported Wednesday.

The second cargo of 27,500 tonnes follows a 25,000-tonne cargo that arrived Sunday at Makassar port, CBH said in a statement.

Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran granted CBH a license in December to export 500,000 tonnes of wheat to its Indonesian flour mills, a decision that temporarily liberalised wheat exports away from a monopoly operated by AWB Ltd. since 1939.

The move was part of a government response to a damning report in November by former judge Terence Cole that found AWB might have broken criminal and corporate laws by making payments to Saddam Hussein's former regime in Iraq.