PERTH, AUSTRALIA — CBH Group credited strong outturn performance and a commitment to competitive grain and fertilizer prices for farmers for helping the company secure a group surplus of A$73.8 million ($46.3 million) on revenue of A$4.5 billion ($2.8 billion) for the financial year ended Sept. 30.
In its 2024 annual report released Dec. 13, the farmer-owned Western Australia cooperative noted the impact of a below-average harvest following a pair of bumper crop years while it continues to make progress on its Path to 2033 Strategy. The group surplus in 2024 was down from A$353 million in 2023 and A$497.7 million in 2022. Revenues dropped from A$6 billion in 2023 and A$6.2 billion in 2022.
CBH’s Operations division reported a reduced A$51 million surplus year on year, reflecting the below-average volume of deliveries from farmers into the network, which totaled 12.5 million tonnes. This compared with deliveries of 22.9 million tonnes in 2023 and 21.3 million in 2022. However, the division produced a strong logistical performance, achieving its third-largest outloading program of 16.3 million tonnes and fourth-largest shipping year at 14.7 million tonnes on record.
“The end of the financial year marked the completion of the first phase, or Horizon 1, of our Path to 2033 Strategy,” said Ben Macnamara, chief executive officer of CBH. “We are proud to have successfully achieved our Horizon 1 target, creating enough capacity to outturn more than 2 million tonnes per month. This success was initially underpinned by the CBH team, and our contractors and transporters, who collectively helped to move the crop through the supply chain.”
Macnamara said CBH also continued to invest in its network, making strikes on a number of important infrastructure projects, such as rapid rail outloading, and improvements to storage and throughput capacity for crops.
In step with its Path to 2033 Strategy, CBH said it invested A$500 million into the network during the year, including a record A$199 million on sustaining capital or replacing and refurbishing existing infrastructure. The goal of the strategy is to be able to achieve a monthly outturn capacity of 3 million tonnes while being able to safely receive an average grain crop of 22 million tonnes. Australia is a significant global supplier of wheat, barley and canola.
The Marketing & Trading division reported a surplus of A$14.8 million as it faced a challenging trading environment. During the year, the division bought 42% of the Western Australia crop and paid A$2.9 billion to producers for their grain, while shipping 8 million tonnes of grain to its customers.
The Fertilizer division completed its first full season operating the Kwinana fertilizer terminal and offering a full range of liquid and granular fertilizers. The division outturned a record 253,000 tonnes and maintained an 11% market share in Western Australia, CBH said.
“Looking forward, our focus remains on delivering our Path to 2033 Strategy and driving efficiencies across the network, to support our ability to outturn up to 3 million tonnes a month by 2033,” Macnamara said. “Over the next four years in Horizon 2, the work that was delivered in the first horizon will start to yield tangible benefits and growers will see the continued delivery of major infrastructure projects across our supply chain, such as the arrival of our new rail fleet and ongoing completion of our rapid rail projects.”
