23 growers from the Riverina region of NSW, are about to reap the benefits of a 52,000 tonne export sale of Durum Wheat, bound for Algeria in Northern Africa.
The vessel finished loading at Geelong Port this week and is another major export sale made by Flexi Grain on behalf of its growers. Managing Director of Flexi Grain, Steve Cameron praised his team’s work in delivering the extra value to growers. “Our senior traders do a fantastic job of understanding supply and demand on a global and domestic basis and understanding where fair value is for our client’s product. It’s a dynamic and complex market, and you need the expertise that those guys provide to understand what to do, when to do it, and where.”
Unlike traditional export sales, where growers sell to a local buyer who can then sell into the export market for a margin, Flexi Grain returns the full value of the grain sale, minus costs, to their growers. There is no middleman. Flexi Grain charges a flat $10/tonne to manage their clients’ assets, facilitate the sale, organise transport and logistics, and return the sale value after costs to their clients.
Flexi Grain senior trader, Sam Roache, said logistically the Algeria sale was a big project.
“Circa 1,500 truck movements, we pre-accumulated 25,000 tonnes down to Geelong over the last 6 or 7 weeks, inter segregated storage to manage the quality, and over the last week or so as we’ve been loading the vessel we’ve brought down around another 25,000 tonnes from up country NSW.”
Mr Roache said the transportation task came together with Flexi Grains’ network of partners. “We’ve worked very closely with our storage and handling partners up country, with Riordan’s in Geelong, and all of our transport providers to bring it all together and the result is a credit to all involved.”
Mr Roache said growers participating in the Algeria sale can expect to receive around $60/mt more vs values over harvest and immediately following. “Our product is designed to provide price discovery and liquidity for our growers by directly connecting them with the export market and consumers. I think a sale like this should give Australian growers of Durum Wheat confidence with marketing a sometimes difficult product”.
Global Durum supply is currently tight and the demand for Australian product is strong. We see an excellent opportunity to put together further cargo on behalf of our growers this season, with current global prices historically high.
Mr Cameron praised the Riverina growers for producing quality grain to meet sale specifications.
“It’s a real credit to our clients who are able to grow export quality grain. To be able to put it on a vessel, meet the specifications of the buyers on a global basis, and send it around the world is a real credit to our clients.”
This is the 6th grain vessel in the past 18 months that Flexi Grain has sent off around the globe on behalf of their growers. Flexi Grain has now exported from ports in Victoria and South Australia.
