Week ending Sunday 27 October 2019 report

Harvest is now underway across all three regions, with sites in the Eastern region taking their first loads last week.

Both our Monarto South and Murray Bridge sites welcomed their first deliveries on Friday, with 17 sites across the network taking their first loads, well up on eight sites in the previous week.

Monarto grower Tyson Paech kicked off the season’s deliveries in the east for the fourth year running, delivering to Tailem Bend last year and our Monarto South site the previous two years.

Delivering into Monarto South on behalf of the family business Inglebrae Holdings, Tyson says the first load of Compass barley was reaped from his better performing paddock, located on the property’s higher country.

“I’m very pleased that it made malt grade,” Tyson says.

“I’ve also started reaping peas – again from one of my better performing crops and the quality is looking good.”

Viterra Eastern region Operations Manager Jo Klitscher says while deliveries in the Murray Mallee will now start trickling in, the region is still a couple of weeks away from hitting full pace.

“Regardless of when it starts, we’re ready and well prepared to receive growers’ grain,” Jo says.

“We’re always working closely with growers to understand their needs and expectations and make sure we meet them.

“Our focus is to provide a valuable, efficient and cost effective supply chain to our grower customers and we will continue working to achieve this.”

The last week has seen more than 100,000 tonnes received into our network, and over 60 per cent was delivered into sites in the Western region.

Viterra Western region Operations Manager Nick Pratt says the Western region had a busy start to the week, but the weather slowed receivals down over the weekend.

“So far grower sentiment is positive and with the majority of deliveries comprising of barley, there have been lots of opportunities for growers to boost prices with our barley dynamic binning,” Nick says.

Viterra Central region Operations Manager Jack Tansley said that the Central region has also been busy with over 38,000 tonnes delivered over the past week, the majority of which was delivered to Snowtown.

“Our Snowtown site has been the preferred delivery location for growers from a large surrounding area. We are currently increasing storage and segregation capacity at the site with two new bunkers that are near completion,” Jack says.

“In the past week, we have also loaded three trains in the Central region, bound for domestic markets.”

Did you know?

• There is 1,264km between our most western site (Penong) and our most eastern site (Dooen), which is the same distance from Amsterdam Netherlands to Turin Italy.
• We’ve invested in building a total of 150,000 tonnes of additional bunker storage at our Cummins, Roseworthy and Snowtown sites for the 2019/20 harvest, as part of our ongoing focus to provide a valuable and efficient service to our customers.
• Viterra is passing on cost savings and efficiencies directly to grower and buyer customers through our storage and handling fees for the 2019/20 harvest. Storage fees will be waived for the month following delivery and simplified storage fees with a flat rate will be applied until August.

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.