November 3, 2011

Viterra's South Australia unit ships record grain

The South Australia-based unit of Viterra Inc. shipped record export volumes of grain, mostly wheat, in the last marketing year, it said Wednesday (Nov 2).

Viterra owns and operates a string of ports in South Australia as a result of its purchase of ABB Grain in 2009. The nearly eight million tonnes of grain shipped out in the year ended September 30 demonstrates strong demand for the state's grain, Dean McQueen, the company's executive manager for grain, said in a statement.

Port Adelaide and Outer Harbour combined shipped nearly three million tonnes of grain in 2010-11, Port Lincoln exported 2.65 million tonnes, up by more than a third from the previous record, while Thevenard's exports reached 479,000 tonnes, Port Giles's 972,000 tonnes and Wallaroo's 982,000 tonnes. Viterra didn't provide year-earlier figures.

"We expect widespread harvesting to begin shortly with above-average yields expected," McQueen said, adding that 1.7 million tonnes of grain are being carried over from the last season in Viterra's storage system.