June 1, 2007

Australia's CBH to push for bulk wheat exports

Western Australian marketer and grain handler, CBH said it will continue to push its export wheat in bulk and apply for license this season.

CBH acting CEO Andy Crane said the Federal Government's decision last week on wheat shipments was only a "small step" towards freeing up the wheat export market.

CBH has been lobbying for changes to the wheat export arrangements, preferring a model that would have allowed them a greater chunk of the wheat exports pie.

Crane said they would be applying for more wheat export licences this year

Under the proposed changes announced last week, Federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran will have the power of veto until June 2008 and transfer that power thereafter to Wheat Export Authority (WEA) which will only be able to issue licences in "exceptional" cases.

Exceptional cases, according to McGauran would include the single desk operator which has been precluded from a market for legal reasons (i.e. AWB and Iraq) and where the single desk operator has failed to develop speciality markets such as closed-loop supply chains and organic wheat.

It remains uncertain whether McGauran will apply the "exceptional cases" criteria to be used by the WEA after June next year, in exercising his veto powers this season.

Crane said the CBH was making good progress in shipping wheat to fill its controversial 0.5 million tonne licence to Indonesia, granted late last year by McGauran.