October 2, 2009

 

The antitrust regulator's approval of undertakings by Australia's three major grain export terminal operators covering fair and transparent access by others to their port facilities marks the final stage of changes to bulk wheat export arrangements, Agriculture Minister Tony Burke said Friday.

 

"This milestone marks the end of the transition period and the start of the new, fully reformed bulk wheat export marketing system. We have officially opened the door to new opportunities for our wheat growers, including in the major West Australian wheat belt."

 

Australia's new system is now fully operational as a result of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission's approval Tuesday (Sept 29) for access undertakings by Cooperative Bulk Handling Ltd., GrainCorp Ltd. and Ausbulk, a unit of ABB Grain, which since last week has been owned by Canadian-based Viterra Inc., he added.

 

The decision will benefit farmers and wheat exporters, while the access arrangements will unlock constraints at grain ports to the benefit of the wider economy and promote the development of a wheat exporting industry that is efficient, competitive and advances the needs of growers, ACCC said Tuesday.

 

Burke said now 22 companies are accredited for bulk wheat exports by regulator Wheat Exports Australia under the new system, which saw an export wheat monopoly operated for decades by AWB Ltd. scrapped from July 1, 2008.

 

A requirement of this liberalization was that CBH, Ausbulk and GrainCorp have port access arrangements accepted by the ACCC.

 

Other companies accredited to export bulk wheat include a mix of local units of major global commodity traders and Australian companies, including Bunge, Cargill, Concordia, Elders Toepfer, Emerald Group, Louis Dreyfus, J.K. International, Marubeni, Noble Resources and Sumitomo.

 

Burke was commenting in a statement after inspecting a A$32 million storage upgrade Thursday at CBH's Geraldton port terminal, one of four such facilities the company operates in Western Australia, which typically accounts for about 40 percent of national wheat output and more than half of its exports.

 

While there is a positive outlook for the wheat crop to be harvested in Western Australia in the coming months, wheat growers in parts of eastern Australia continue to face some difficult conditions and are hoping for rain, he said.

 

Australian wheat exports in 2008-09 reached 13.4 million tonnes, valued around A$5 billion.

 

Production from the new wheat crop is forecast by the government, industry participants and analysts around 22 million tonnes, of which about 15 million tonnes will be available for export, making Australia a major supplier to the global trade.