DESPITE widespread marketing confusion in the first year of deregulation and the reluctance of growers to sell at current prices, export grain is starting to move from NSW.
GrainCorp’s Newcastle export terminal, which has had little use in the past two years because of drought-reduced crops, last Friday loaded 27,000 tonnes of wheat onto the Energy Star, the first wheat shipment since April 2007, apart from a small cargo (3675t) in mid-November.
GrainCorp estimates up to five shipments could go from Newcastle in January and three ships were lined up to take wheat from Port Kembla in January.
GrainCorp corporate affairs manager, David Ginns, said although an unusually high 90 per cent of growers had chosen initially to warehouse their grain this year, many needed the cash flow and had started to sell, leaving only 65 to 70pc of the grain in GrainCorp storages still warehoused.
Farmers were also responding to some improvement in prices, he said.
But grain markets are continuing to struggle to find their operating level as market rumours fly about, leaving both buyers and sellers unsure of the true supply and demand situation.
For more see this week's The Land.
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