Week ending Sunday 8 December 2019 report

Cool weather brought a slower pace to harvesting at the start of this week; however, a further 340,000 tonnes were received into our network, pushing total receivals to over 3 million tonnes.

As the weather warmed up, all regions experienced a busier end to the week with one site in the Western region recording its biggest day on record.

Viterra Western region Operations Manager Nick Pratt says while overall deliveries slowed a little from recent weeks, our Kapinnie site had a record-breaking day of receivals.

“On Wednesday, Kapinnie broke their all-time daily receival record by almost 1000 tonnes, taking in almost 2,700 tonnes of grain,” Nick says.

“It was a great achievement by staff at the site who managed the bumper day of receivals efficiently and safely.”

As well as receiving deliveries, sites in our Western and Central regions are busy preparing and moving grain for loading onto vessels at our Port Lincoln, Thevenard, Port Giles and Wallaroo export terminals.

Viterra Eastern region Operations Manager Jo Klitscher says harvesting activity in the Loxton and Apamurra areas are starting to wind down, but that the south east is still actively harvesting.

“While barley continues to make up the majority of deliveries, wheat is increasing, and growers have been very happy with our dynamic binning service for both commodities,” Jo says.

We continue to respond to growers’ changing needs, with our Dooen site the latest to extend opening hours until midnight on Sunday, to ensure growers could deliver ahead of the forecast hot weather. The regional Victorian site’s harvest receivals are picking up with predominately barley and canola receivals.

Did you know?

• Ardrossan was the first silo in our network. It was purchased in 1955, with 27,000 tonnes of storage. Since then, the site has significantly expanded to 420,000 tonnes, and is our 7th biggest site.
• We shipped more grain to the east coast of Australia last year than any other single export destination, following the increase in domestic demand.
• As well as Australia, key export markets for South Australian grain in the Viterra system include Vietnam, China, New Zealand, Indonesia and Europe.

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.