GrainCorp to build more grain storage and reopen closed silos

GrainCorp is making big changes in preparation for another big harvest, but is keeping tight-lipped on some aspects. Here’s what we know.

GrainCorp is remaining tight-lipped on which grain storages will get an upgrade in time for this year’s harvest. Picture: Zoe Phillips

GrainCorp plans to build one million tonnes in extra grain storage and reopen closed receival sites in Victoria and NSW in preparation for another big harvest.

With the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences forecasting a 22 million winter crop on the nation’s east coast grain belt after a 30 million tonne harvest last summer, GrainCorp knows it has to create more storage capacity.

Managing director Robert Spurway said plans began before the end of last harvest to prepare the network for another big crop.

“Planning has been well under way for some time now and the works will focus on boosting our capacity in major cropping regions across NSW and Victoria in particular,” Mr Spurway said.

“We’ll build extra storage across the central and northern regions of NSW and across the northeast region of Victoria.

“On top of the one million tonnes of extra storage, we are also looking at reopening some sites to accommodate the anticipated demand, and we have a maintenance plan in place to get these sites back into full operation.”

GrainCorp is not revealing which sites are to be expanded or will be reopened remain until it works through approval processes with local government authorities.

The bulk handler received a record 16 million tonnes of grain last harvest, beating the previous record of 15 million tonnes set in 2016-17.

It is still expecting to carry over of 3.5-4.5 million tonnes of last harvest’s crop beyond September 30.

Mr Spurway said the company was working around the clock to load out as much grain from last harvest as possible before the new season’s deliveries began.

“Growers are driving past their local sites and noticing we’re still carrying grain from last harvest, which is typical after a large production year,” he said.

“Our supply chain is running full tilt with 3,000 truckloads and over 50 trains being loaded out of the network each week to move that grain.

“The new storage will take some pressure off these sites, and we will be operating a large fleet of trains over harvest to continue to make space as deliveries roll in.”

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