The 2022-23 grains harvest will be a “tale of two seasons” with delays and heavy downgrades on the east coast, while Western Australia and South Australia head for production records.
On the east coast, harvest has been set back by least a fortnight, with some crops in Queensland and northern NSW still green at a time when work would normally be under way.
Harvest logistics in Queensland, NSW and Victoria were shaping up to be “a bit of a nightmare”, Grain Producers Australia chief executive Colin Bettles said.
“This year, crops are drying off at different levels and different stages throughout the east coast, and the rain will also interrupt (harvest contractors) because they won’t be able to move machinery (due to damaged and flooded roads),” he said.
In Western Australia, 200,000 tonnes of grain had been delivered to the CBH network as of Monday.
Western Australian grain grower and GPA chairman Barry Large said logistics in the west were under heavy pressure from the state’s third consecutive large harvest.
“At the moment we are seeing record crops around in the west, but … unfortunately it appears that we don’t have the infrastructure to handle the supply that we have to get out to the market.”
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