Grain harvest: GIWA forecasts WA to top 22 million tonnes, records smashed

Records are being smashed in Western Australia as the grain harvest nears its end.

Grain growers in Western Australia are set to smash harvest records

The Grain Industry Association of Western Australia last week updated its forecast of the state’s crop, estimating growers will harvest 22.1 million tonnes of grain.

That’s about 1.5 million tonnes higher than its November forecast and 900,000 tonnes more than the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences’ estimation made at the beginning of December.

It is 25 per cent bigger than the previous WA record of 17.74 million tonnes of grain harvested in 2016-17.

WA bulk handler and grain marketer CBH Group said receivals into its network had topped 18.34 million tonnes by Monday morning after 2.53 million tonnes were delivered during the past week.

CBH chief operations officer Mick Daw said the previous annual receival record was 16.65 million tonnes delivered in 2016-17.

“For perspective, we have received over 9.76 million tonnes in the past 23 days, which is more than the entire 2019-20 harvest,” Mr Daw said.

“We are now in uncharted territory as we continue to receive the remainder of WA’s largest ever grain harvest.”

On the east coast, GrainCorp said it had its biggest week of deliveries so far this season, with more than two million tonnes of grain received into its network.

It had now received 10.36 million tonnes by Monday, of which 1.38 million tonnes was delivered into NSW storages and 609,000 tonnes into the Victorian network.

GrainCorp said Victorian and southern NSW harvest would continue into January.

“The large grain out-load program continues across the entire network to create capacity for more receivals, with up to 300,000 tonnes of grain being out-loaded per week,” it said.

Many Victorian growers had completed their harvest, while others still three or more weeks to go.

Kaniva grower Jonathan Dyer said his family still had two to three weeks to go.

“We had a late start due to rain,” Mr Dyer said. “It was the latest start I have ever experienced.”

In South Australia, growers delivered 922.000 tonnes of grain into Viterra’s system by Sunday, taking total receivals into its network to 4.88 million tonnes, although those figures included the Werrimull and Dooen storages in Victoria.