Week ending Sunday 22 December 2019 report

We received over 170,000 tonnes of grain last week, taking our total receivals to 3.79 million tonnes.

Our busiest day was Monday 16, with receivals gradually slowing towards the weekend with the heatwave across the state.

We closed all sites on Friday due to forecast extreme weather conditions, as we continue to prioritise safety before operations.

The Eastern region took over 97,000 tonnes of grain last week, which is more than the Western and Central regions’ receivals combined.

Viterra Eastern region Operations Manager Jo Klitscher says the south east of the region is still seeing strong receivals.

“Despite all sites closing on Friday, extended opening hours around the extreme weather event meant that growers still had delivery options, our Wolseley site in particular saw good volumes of trucks through it,” Jo says.

“We are continuing to talk with growers who are still harvesting over the Christmas and New Year period to ensure we are offering the opening hours they need.”

While receivals into our Central and Western region sites are slowing, both regions are busy exporting grain to international and domestic markets.

Viterra Western region Operations Manager Nick Pratt says three vessels were loaded last week.

“We loaded 90,000 tonnes of wheat and barley into three vessels out of our Port Lincoln export terminal,” Nick says. Viterra Central region Operations Manager Jack Tansley says that Viterra loaded both vessels and trains in the region in the last week.

“We loaded vessels at both our Port Giles and Wallaroo export terminals and loaded trains at Bowmans, Snowtown, Crystal Brook and Gladstone,” Jack says.

“It takes coordination of the whole business to ensure the right grain is at the right place for loading, all the while managing its quality.”

Please note this is our last weekly report for the 2019/20 season. Viterra will begin releasing monthly reports, the first commencing Tuesday 7 January.

Did you know?

• Viterra conducts an annual post harvest grower survey to seek grower customers’ views about our operations, customer service, communication and services that they value. Our 2019/20 harvest survey will be released in the new year, and will be sent to over 5000 growers and available on our website. 
• Since the introduction of our new Viterra app for the 2019/20 harvest, there have been over 1000 transfers of grain in the app. Growers can access Ezigrain and transfer grain in an easy three step process on their mobile device. 
• More than 1570 people joined our business for seasonal work this harvest, nearly 300 of which, were internationals from 36 different countries.

Disclaimer
* This data is subject to variation due to individual site operations and the timing of reports.
** The total 2019/20 data includes grain received into Viterra’s storage and handling network since 8 October 2019.
*** Eastern region data includes Inner Harbour and Victorian sites.