Albany pool remains open

The Australian Wheat Board closed all its wheat pools in the Western Australian and South Australian port zones last Friday, except Albany.

Picture by Malcolm Heberle: Albany receival point officer Brodie Cole checks over some late harvest wheat last Friday

AWB’s decision to keep its Albany pool open longer was to accommodate Great Southern farmers affected by the wet and drawn-out harvesting season.

“Usually we close the pools as soon as harvesting is finished but we delayed closing the Albany pool this year to give farmers the time to work out a decision whether to deliver to the pool,” AWB head of corporate affairs Peter McBride said.

“Because of the wet, some farmers haven’t finished harvesting yet. We have a tonnage limit in each of the pools and we consult with the AWB network to try to give all the farmers an equal opportunity to deliver, but we do have to close them to finalise shipping and marketing,” he said.

Regional manager for the South West of WA Trent Smoker said it wasn’t unprecedented that a port should be left open longer.

“It happens from time to time. The very tail-end of farmers will be finishing up now,” he said.

There are four port zones in WA and seven in South Australia.

The Albany port zone encompasses farms as far as Hyden, Lake Grace, Newdegate, Dumbleyung and Wagin.

Mr McBride said it was yet to be decided when the Albany port would close, but it could be as soon as the end of this week.

AWB grain development manager Richard Williams said the company’s pools had been well supported by farmers.

“We have kept them open as long as possible to enable farmers maximum opportunity for flexibility in their grain marketing,” he said.

“However, we need to move forward on consolidating stocks and refining our own marketing strategies.”

Despite the longer than usual harvest, this season has been a bumper one for the Albany zone.

Grain growers have delivered a staggering 14,990,000 tonnes this season breaking the State record and the Albany zone record.

On Monday morning receivals to Albany had reached 2.99 million tonnes, well above the estimated 2.5 million tonnes for the season.

CBH Albany zone manager Greg Thornton said most growers had finished harvest but there were a couple still going around the Pingrup area.

Mr Thornton said grain being delivered was mostly stored on farm and had been through grain cleaners and dryers.

“We expect … probably another 10,000 tonnes to be received,” Mr Thornton said.

Harvest is done for Geraldton with 3.53 million tonnes and Kwinana with 6.746 million tonnes.

Esperance is 95 per cent complete with 1.6 million tonnes in the bin.

Got a story? Email marc.simojoki@albanyadvertiser.com