Anniversary of the new wheat marketing arrangements

The first anniversary of Wheat Exports Australia (WEA) and the Wheat Export Marketing Act 2008 (the Act) has coincided with some significant milestones within Australia’s wheat industry.

Today growers have 22 accredited companies to choose from when making their wheat marketing decisions and the volume of bulk wheat exports continues to grow under the new arrangements.

Earlier this month WEA accredited its first farm-based company, under the Wheat Export Accreditation Scheme (the Scheme).  The accreditation of Greentree Farming Exports Pty Ltd marks a new era in Australia’s wheat marketing arrangements, where Greentree Farming now has complete control of its wheat from production, harvest, storage, marketing and exporting.

This accreditation shows the flexibility of the scheme in providing a range of wheat marketing models and has further broadened the wheat export arrangements. Greentree Farming will exclusively market wheat grown on its own properties located in northern New South Wales.

Greentree Farming Exports Pty Ltd has built significant on-farm storage facilities on a number of its properties and is currently supplying wheat in containers for export. The company is accredited to export bulk wheat until 30 September 2010.

The exports of wheat in bulk continued to thrive throughout the year. Between 1 October 2008 and 30 June 2009, more than 9 million tonnes of bulk wheat has been exported to 40 countries. Sixteen accredited companies have exercised their new bulk wheat accreditation, in turn providing a competitive market for Australian growers.

Figure 1: Market destination of Australian bulk wheat exports (1 October 2008 - 30 June 2009)

Data compiled by WEA, indicates that Indonesia and Iran are the main destinations for Australian bulk wheat, as seen in Figure 1.

Throughout the year Bahrain, Israel, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Spain and the Syrian Arab Republic purchased Australian wheat in bulk. These countries had not purchased wheat in bulk from Australia for up to eight years, and it is encouraging to have these country relationships renewed under the new bulk wheat marketing arrangements.

Exporter Accreditation Renewals

The Scheme allows for exporter accreditation to continue, uninterrupted, by way of a renewal process. Exporters were required to submit a renewal application by 30 June 2009, to allow a period of processing time before the expiry of their existing accreditation on 30 September 2009.

All exporters that were accredited during the year have applied to renew their accreditation, except for one exporter which surrendered its accreditation during the year. WEA will be applying the same criteria, to the 22 renewal applications, as it would with any application for accreditation.

Update on ACCC access undertakings

To gain accreditation as a wheat exporter after
1 October 2009, exporters that own or operate port terminal facilities must have an access undertaking assessed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and in operation by this date.  This process makes up one part of the access test under the Act that relates to the accreditation of wheat exporters.

The ACCC released an issues paper on 29 April 2009 regarding the access undertakings submitted by ABB Grain Ltd, Co-operative Bulk Handling Ltd and GrainCorp Ltd. The ACCC invited submissions on the undertakings from interested parties.

The undertakings and submissions relating to each are available from the ACCC website. 

A draft decision, taking into consideration industry comment in relation to the undertakings, is expected in a few weeks.

An access undertaking comes into operation, for the purposes of accreditation under the Wheat Export Marketing Act 2008, at the time when the ACCC publishes a final decision to accept the undertaking.

View further information on ACCC process – port terminal access test

WEA Corporate Plan 2008—2010

WEA has published its first Corporate Plan. WEA is required to prepare a Corporate Plan which sets out its strategies and polices to achieve its objectives under the Wheat Export Marketing Act 2008 . The WEA Corporate Plan 2008-2010 covers the three financial years 2008—09, 2009—10 and 2010—11.

The Corporate Plan outlines WEA’s vision, mission and values and provides key result areas in relation to its operations under the Scheme, and also provides an overview of WEA’s legislation, reporting requirements and funding. It was approved by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in June 2009.

View WEA Corporate Plan 2008—2010

WEA Presentations

CEO of WEA, Peter Woods, recently presented to the NSW Farmers Grains Committee on its visit to Canberra this month.

The presentation provided the grains committee with up-to-date information on WEA, and is available on the WEA website.

Peter will also present, with other leading international and national speakers, at the Grains West Expo 2009 in Perth from the 18-19 August.  Visit the Grain Industry of Western Australia Inc. for further details about the Expo.

View WEA presentations

Stakeholder Forums

The final WEA stakeholder forum for 2008—09 was held in Brisbane in May.  The forum was well attended and the opportunity for stakeholders to meet with the WEA Board was welcomed.

The next series of stakeholder forums, which will continue into 2010, will again be held in each wheat exporting state. The first one is set to kick off in Perth in early September.