PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA — The CBH Group will maintain its reduced supply chain fees in the 2019-20 season, following the A$4 per tonne reduction provided to growers and marketers last year ahead of the 2018-19 season.

CBH General Manager Operations Ben Macnamara said the co-operative’s commitment to reducing paddock to port costs had enabled CBH to keep grower and marketer fees flat for the upcoming season, while also making a significant A$240 million capital and maintenance investment in the storage and handling network this year.

“Improved organizational efficiency and productivity over the past year, while ensuring we consider the overall picture of the cost environment grower businesses face, has allowed us to achieve substantial cost benefits,” Macnamara said. “We’re really pleased to continue to pass this value on to growers up-front by holding our fees at the reduced rate implemented last season. 

“Holding the reduced fees was a commitment we made to growers last year, and we’re proud to have delivered on this while also investing approximately A$240 million in capital and maintenance network works this year.” 

In a time of increasing international competition, Macnamara said the co-operative continues to focus on building a world-class supply chain to ensure the Western Australian grain industry remained competitive. 

“CBH continues its commitment to offer Western Australian growers the most efficient and cost-effective network possible, to keep growers competitive against lower cost grain from international markets such as the Black Sea,” he said.

In August, CBH completed its first piece of the network strategy expansion projects by opening the expanded Gardiner receival site which included two open bulkheads that have a combined storage capacity of 46,800 tonnes. It takes the total storage capacity at the site to over 293,000 tonnes.

CBH has budgeted more than A$150 million this year for network capital projects that will add over 800,000 tonnes of new storage, and associated inloading and outloading equipment.