Cooperative Bulk Handling’s Grain Pool unit is concerned at the recent approval by the Grain Licensing Authority of Western Australia of two applications for multi-year special export licences to China and the Middle East.
Cooperative Bulk Handling’s Grain Pool unit is concerned at the recent approval by the Grain Licensing Authority of Western Australia of two applications for multi-year special export licences to China and the Middle East.
The special licence to China consists of 50,000 tonnes of malting barley a year for three years, while the Middle East licence is for 50,000t of feed barley annually for three years.
The licences are to exporters in China and the Middle East who are regarded as paying competitive prices to Western Australian growers not selling to Grain Pool customers.
GLA executive officer Allan Johns told WA Business News these were the first multi-year special licences to be issued for this harvest.
“It is also the earliest in the year licences have been approved,” he said. “This allows more time for growers to plan and prepare to talk to customers before they can seed.”
However, Grain Pool general manager Dr Andy Crane said he was disappointed by the GLA’s decision to grant licences so early in the season and for the next three years, before the crop was even in the ground.
“Our key concern remains that the GLA is further relaxing the rules by granting licences for three years where it has been clearly demonstrated that the rules are not tight enough for licences granted in single seasons,” Dr Crane said.
Pastoralists and Graziers Association of Western Graingrowers chairman, Leon Bradley, said the special licences represented new market opportunities for WA barley growers, and while the purchasing parcels may be small, they should be regular.
“These new licences are an important trifecta,” he said.
“They will mean premium cash prices for growers, more flexible buying arrangements and access to WA grain for important new buyers, and a three-year secure term for the licence holder to develop his business.
“These are the marketing benefits wheat growers should be able to enjoy.”
Dr Crane said the granting of licences before the size of a crop was known and before anyone knew what the next few years might hold was dangerous and irresponsible.
However, Mr Johns said there had been very little volatility in the size of crops for a number of years.
“They [multi-year licences] give growers a choice and some certainty and the ability to develop arrangements with customers which wouldn’t be viable under a one-year licence,” he said.
Saudi Arabia is regarded as the biggest buyer of feed barely from Australia, while China is the biggest buyer of malting barley.
The Grain Licensing Authority is the regulating authority for prescribed grains in WA and operates under the Grain Marketing Act 2002.
The Grain Pool Pty Ltd was established in 1922 as the Wheat Pool of Western Australia and is a specialist marketing organisation with a reputation for supplying grain to the major markets of the world.
