CBH Grain Head of Pools Bryce Banfield said the increase has been driven by the drought conditions in the U.S. which severely impacted production and yields in soybeans causing prices to rally in an attempt to ration demand.
“The sales profile of the lupin pool has allowed CBH Grain to capture this value for Western Australian growers across all established lupin markets,” Banfield said. “Additionally a sustained marketing effort and increased demand resulted in the reopening of bulk shipments of WA lupins to the Middle East after a long absence.
“Unfortunately competition in WA’s largest lupin market led to lower prices through most of 2012. However the reopening of the Middle East market and access to other CBH Grain established markets allowed flexibility with the sales program which helped provide an extra boost to values for CBH Grain’s lupin Harvest Pool.
“Furthermore we continue to see an increase in demand from high value, specialty markets that CBH Grain has been developing over a number of years.
“CBH Grain is currently in the process of completing the marketing program for 2011-12 and we are pleased to announce that the pool will be finalized and paid out before the end of the year.”
