WEST PERTH, AUSTRALIA — The CBH Group has completed its second largest harvest on record with 16.4 million tonnes of grain received across the CBH network during the 2018-19 season.
The large crop saw many records broken across its receival sites, including the Kwinana Zone with a total of 8 million tonnes delivered, beating the previous record of 7.5 million tonnes set in 2013-14.
David Capper, general manager of operations at CBH, said the season exceeded expectations:
- 25 sites broke season receival records and 23 sites broke one day receival records.
- 17 sites across the Kwinana Zone broke one day receival records and 18 sites within the zone broke season receival records.
- Merredin received the most grain within the Kwinana Zone, with 444,300 tonnes delivered.
- Mingenew received the most grain within the Geraldton Zone, with 575,700 tonnes delivered.
- Cranbrook was the Albany Zone’s largest site, with 340,500 tonnes delivered.
- Eseperance Grain Terminal (including Chadwick) received the most grain with the Eseperance Zone, with 1.15 million tonnes delivered.
“While we were anticipating a larger than average harvest, the final result was more than we expected and a great outcome for growers and CBH,” he said. “This is a particularly pleasing result as we introduced a number of changes to delivery processes this season, including the implementation of the new CDF mobile delivery app for growers and transporters.”
The CDF app was well received with over 69% of tonnes delivered via the app. CBH also said it was able to better track average site turnaround times, including queue times, which reduced from 46 minutes last season to 43 minutes this season.
“The CDF app, coupled with the extensive site throughput enhancements made prior to harvest and dedicated work from the CBH teams have all contributed to improving our efficiency at site, which is a core focus for CBH operations,” Capper said.
Capper said CBH now is focused on moving grain from upcountry sites to port to meet the requirements of a demanding shipping program for the start of the year.
“Taking in such a large crop is not without its challenges, so I want to thank growers and transporters for their continued support, and the CBH team for working safely and efficiently to resolve issues,” Capper said.
CBH also began implementing a new zone and area management structure for its Western Australian grain receival network.
“CBH operations is implementing a more streamlined and flat country operations management structure, which will increase the number of zone and area managers, reducing geographical and operational spans of contro,” Capper said.
Effective Feb. 1, Kwinana Port Zone will be divided into two management Zones — Kwinana North and Kwinana South — each with a respective zone manager.
While the number of port zones remains at four, this change will take the total number of management zones from four to five, and, subsequently increase the number of zone managers to five.
Grain from within the two Kwinana Zones will continue to be exported through the Kwinana Grain Terminal.
Subsequently, the CBH zone managers are:
- Geraldton – Duncan Gray
- Kwinana North – Allan Walker
- Kwinana South – Jaco Harwig
- Albany – Adam Wray (beginning mid-February)
- Esperance – Mick Daw
Additionally, the number of area managers within the CBH network will increase to 19 from 12.
“The structural changes will see our team adopt a simpler model with less layers to better serve our growers, and continue to transform CBH into a fitter, leaner business,” Capper said. “There will be little impact on our growers and they should expect the same level of service from CBH as they always have done.”
