GRAIN marketer Flexi Grain has supplied its first Victorian export consignment this season, with a ship carrying milling wheat from both Riordan's Geelong port and T Ports Lucky Bay port on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula heading to Iraq.
The bulk carrier Wisteria loaded 33,000 tonnes of milling quality wheat at the Riordan Group Geelong export terminal at Lascelles Wharf before going on to the T-Ports facility at Lucky Bay and loading an additional 11,000 tonnes on its way to Iraq.
It marks further evolution at Flexi Grain, which was established in 2013 to provide growers with marketing risk management, including a headline program designed so growers had no risk of wash outs.
This offering is made possible through a hectare based contract, which is managed under a pooling structure to provide the scale required to implement various marketing strategies including grain export programs when the market is favourable.
Flexi Grain officials said with the record elevation margins available to exporters over the last 2 years, the business had taken the opportunity to procure export capacity and work with international marketers to put an export program together, on behalf of their growers.
"With the market at historically high levels internationally and a robust local production environment we see this as an opportunity to create value for our grower customers," said Flexi Grain trader Sam Roache.
"It is where initiatives like our early commitment products allow us to get to work confident that we'll have the grain," Mr Roache said.
Fellow trader Lachlan Hume said the company would look at exporting grain on an opportunity basis, with elevation margins looking strong into next season already.
"We might not be sending grain out every year, but looking at where the market is now with the high international values and a good moisture profile in many areas, the elevation margin case is as strong as ever," Mr Hume said.
Looking forward to the new crop period, Flexi Grain sees elevation margin for APW and feed barley in the vicinity of $50-80/tonne over local grower bids across Victoria and South Australia, factoring in a continuation of the high freight and execution costs seen this year.
Mr Roache said the margins are even higher in NSW and WA, owing to the higher carry out stocks and good production outlooks in these states.
He said the recent WA seasonal capacity auction for Oct 22-Sep 23 elevation capacity has been reportedly sold out for the entire year in minutes.
"This gives a good look at the traders view on elevation margins and appetite to capitalise by booking whatever export capacity they can."
"We expect the trade to aggressively seek out available capacity across the other states and suggest moving quickly for growers wanting to participate in export programs.
"There is a real chance of missing out on key early year shipping capacity this season."
Flexi Grain managing director Steve Cameron paid tribute to Riordans for getting the grain out efficiently.
"There's a lot of work in coordinating the shipment and they have been fantastic to deal with and allow us to make this idea a reality," Mr Cameron said.
Hamish MacDonald, grain accumulator and trader at Riordans, said a large amount of planning had to go into getting the grain ready to load.
"Not all the grain can be stored at our port facility prior to loading so we have to liaise with the upcountry sites and the transporters and make sure it is all coordinated and arrives at the right time," Mr MacDonald said.
Riordans have emerged as a significant niche player in Victoria's bulk export scene, exporting out of both Lascelles Wharf in Geelong and at the Port of Portland since executing their first shipment in 2017, loading their millionth tonne last year.
"From an execution perspective, we have found that teaming up with the smaller more customer focused port operators has worked out really well," Mr Hume said.
"Much of the wheat loaded at Geelong came from the Mallee, with a large amount coming from the private storage network, which offers cost savings and execution flexibility," he said.
He said looking forward while elevation margins remain high, Flexi Grains new crop strategy will continue to have a strong focus on exporting grower grain.