Grain giant delivers $202 operating earnings

Strong crop volumes, particularly in northern NSW and Queensland, have helped GrainCorp deliver a strong profit. See the latest financials.

Strong crop volumes, particularly in northern NSW and Queensland, have helped GrainCorp to deliver a solid result for the first half of the financial year of $202 million operating earnings.

The earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation for FY25 were up from $164m reported at the same time last year.

GrainCorp chief executive Robert Spurway delivered the financial results at a meeting in Sydney on Thursday and said the results reflected substantial grain volumes in the eastern states and Western Australia.

In the financial breakdown it was shown that GrainCorp has $296m in core cash and there was an announcement of a 24 cents per share interim dividend for shareholders.

The share price, announced to the Australian Stock Exchange, is made up of 14c ordinary dividend (fully franked) and 10c special dividend (fully franked) with a payment date marked as July 17, 2025.

GrainCorp chief executive Robert Spurway officer unveiled the company’s financials in Sydney on Thursday. Picture: Supplied

Large purchasing inventories contributed heavily to the company’s debt.

Mr Spurway attributed the net debt level of $1.3 billion to current funding needed to cover the larger grain inventories.

Shareholders were told that total crop production on the east coast was 33.8 million tonnes, an increase from the 26 million tonnes last year.

Key production was attributed to Queensland and northern NSW and the lower production levels in Victoria were highlighted.

In fact, Victoria’s crop was labelled as being the smallest since 2018-19. According to the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Sciences wheat production in Victoria had decreased 51 per cent to 2 million tonnes, barley fell 48 per cent to 1.1 million tonnes and canola dropped 63 per cent to 275,000 tonnes.

Additionally operational improvements for GrainCorp included a $7m upgrade to the Condobolin rail terminal in Central West NSW.

This was considered a significant logistic boon for the grain and cropping industry and was forecast to reduce truck movements by up to 900 a year.

Sustainability initiatives such as a large-scale recycling program for 300,000kg of tarpaulins which were diverted from landfill during the 2024-25 harvest were also announced during the shareholder presentation.

Mr Spurway said despite global pressures and recent headlined tariffs the core business was food, feed and fuel.

“Despite market volatility there is a robust balance sheet,” he said.

He said there was attractive long-term growth across South East Asia and Australian farmers could meet the market with growing supply.

“Over the next five years I see the scale of our network and the flexibility that it brings delivering to the market,” he said.

Mr Spurway said there were concerns about tariffs, but GrainCorp had already demonstrated that it was able to find an alternative market when China implemented tariffs on barley.

“We have an agile business,” he said.

GrainCorp chief financial officer Ian Morrison cited the seasonal conditions across the east coast for the better production but also acknowledged the difficulties being faced by Victorian farmers who were heading into their second dry year.