The inaugural shipment will set off from Kwinana later this week with an estimated 15-day journey to Japan where it will unload at three Japanese ports, Chiba, Keihin and Kashima.
CBH Grain Head of Marketing, Tom Puddy, was at the CBH Group Kwinana Port Terminal as the Sofia R was loaded.
"The sale was for 35,600 tonne of MAFF ASW blend wheat, a blend of noodle and premium milling grade wheat, destined for east Japan," Puddy said.
"Japan purchases around 900,000 tonnes of MAFF ASW from WA every year through a regular tender process conducted by MAFF. Only accredited trading houses are allowed to participate in the wheat tender process."
The MAFF accreditation enables CBH Grain, via its Japan office to participate in the MAFF wheat tender process and subsequently import wheat directly into Japan.
This common style of tender process is used by many countries and works by multiple accredited bidders submitting their bidding price to a central organisation and the contract being awarded to the business with the most competitive bid.
"Traditionally CBH Grain has joined the regular tender with Japanese trading houses accredited by MAFF to present WA wheat for tender," Puddy said.
"CBH Grain has worked for almost two years to become the first WA grain buyer to become accredited under the MAFF system and now has direct access to offer wheat to the Japanese market through MAFF tenders.
"Achieving this accreditation brings WA wheat growers closer to Japanese end-users and creates a direct link for customer appetite levels to be fed directly back to WA growers through the CBH Grain supply chain."
CBH Grain will continue to participate directly in MAFF wheat tenders when appropriate but has the option to work with its current Japanese trading houses when the requirement arises and will continue to engage in those long term relationships where it adds values to WA growers.
