WEST PERTH, AUSTRALIA —The CBH Group announced on Feb 19 it had issued Western Australian growers with their 2016 Grower Value Statements, showing storage and handling fees remain advantageous compared to equivalent services on the east coast.

The Grower Value Statement provides each grower with an individual view of the value that their cooperative has generated for them in the past 12 months through rebates, storage and handling fees, freight and quality optimization.

Andy Crane, CBH group’s chief executive officer, said that Western Australia growers are about A$14.50 per tonne better off using the cooperative’s storage and handling services than those in the rest of Australia.

“The total storage and handling savings for 2015-16 reach A$195 million when benchmarked against the rates of all major storage and handling providers in Australia,” he said. “When comparing transport costs, WA growers using the CBH network pay a total of A$85 million less than their counterparts in eastern Australia. In addition to these savings CBH also provides a rebate to growers, which is deducted from their storage and handling fees.”

For the 2015-16 harvest, that rebate total reached more than A$14 million.

“In the last three years CBH has returned A$85 million to WA growers through rebates,” said Crane. “It’s great to be able to take step back once a year and analyze the current landscape to make sure that CBH is stacking up well against its counterparts. These results indicate that the business is not just matching other providers but offering millions of dollars in annual savings to WA growers.”

“In an industry where margins are tight, grower control of their own supply chain is critical. We have a sole focus on the grower to lower the costs of the supply chain, improve service and generate rebates,” he said. “We are proud to be able to generate value for growers and return that through the co-operative. Every part of our supply chain must be as efficient as possible and continually searching for improvement.”

“We will keep working to reduce costs and pass those savings back to growers in low fees, good service or rebates,” said Crane.