September 24, 2010

Australia to transport bumper grain crop by container

Australian farmers are being told they must move huge amounts of grain by container this year or face big transport delays.

The Australasian Railways Association estimates container movements on rail need to increase about ten-fold to avoid bottlenecks at ports and handling depots.

The Association's Bryan Nye says the size of the harvest will force a total rethink of Australian grain transport.

"If they put a lot more grain into containers there would be an avenue to export it through the Sydney market because there's plenty of capacity to take more containers out of Sydney," he says.

"Currently in Canada, 25% of grain goes in containers. That doesn't occur in Australia, we still bulk ship," he adds.