Early figures from GrainCorp’s east coast network have shown the dramatic impact of the drought on farmers, with volumes practically non-existent so far in the winter crop.
Continued drought conditions have seen what little grain has grown kept on farms, the ASX-listed grain storage and transport firm revealed on October 30.
The few farmers capable have managed to deliver just 25,500 tonnes to GrainCorp’s Queensland, NSW and Victoria sites so far in the winter crop.
Around the same time last year, those facilities had received 717,000 tonnes of grain.
The decline is most staggering in New South Wales, where just 1,000 tonnes has been received, down from 199,000 tonnes around this time last year.
In Queensland’s last year’s receival figure of 508,000 tonnes has declined to 21,000 tonnes this season.
And in Victoria, receivals so far are just 3,500 tonnes, down from 10,000.
GrainCorp says it has reversed its export supply chain so it can receive transhipped grain from ports to meet strong domestic demand. 156,000 tonnes of grain, mostly from Western Australia, have so far been received at port by GrainCorp.
“In northern regions, our teams are working with local growers to adapt our network for harvest,” the latest harvest update says. “This includes operating many sites on an ‘as needed’ basis.”
The report comes days after agribusiness bank Rabobank said it expected Australia’s winter crop exports to drop roughly 50 percent, with production the lowest in 10 years, as a result of poor rainfall in the eastern states.