This article is part of a profile series on Agfarm. To read the other articles in this series click here and here.MULTINATIONAL grain giant Gavilon once had plans to own the entire AWB trading and storage network in Australia but now is happy to outsource much of its grain accumulation activities to a third party like Agfarm.
"We're still assessing our options, but we've had very good support from Agfarm, which makes us question what resources we need to put in the bush ourselves," said Gavilon Australia's origination general manager, Matt Rutter.
"Considering the time it takes to set your own people up in a new regional location and build relationships it's better for us to leverage off the existing network that Agfarm has via its own offices and its local CRT ties."
"One benefit of buying through Agfarm is its people know what specific quality and stocks are available out there, and what deals will work with sellers.
"Quite often we can target a specific region for an export parcel because of the feedback we've gained from Agfarm."
Mr Rutter felt buying through Agfarm's grass roots-based broking service would help Gavilon build longer term credentials with rural communities, and "return something to individual businesses" in Ruralco's independent farm services network.
Although making earlier moves to set up base in Australia two years ago, including buying into port facilities in Brisbane and making an unsuccessful bid for AWB Ltd, Gavilon only became a serious grain buyer during the recent harvest.
The US-based commodities trader, formed in 2008 after spinning off from agribusiness giant, ConAgra, has its Australian base in Perth and a small Melbourne office from where it has concentrated primarily on obtaining wheat, barley canola and sorghum for export to Asia.
Its buying focus has been largely in Queensland, northern NSW, South Australia and Western Australia.
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