THE South East Premium Wheat Growers Association (SEPWA) has applied for Royalties for Regions funding to investigate setting up a grain export trade using shipping containers.
SEPWA project officer Nigel Metz said the group was looking at marketing opportunities following the deregulation of the grain market for local growers.
“Going into a deregulated market there are opportunities unfolding in the marketing side, it's a new, exciting area,” Mr Metz said.
“We also have a container crane locally that has excess capacity.
“We are hoping to investigate the container trade to see if it can offer an opportunity for grain exports from Esperance.”
He said early research indicates that around 15 per cent of the regions grain would be required to underpin a regular container service.
Mr Metz said Esperance grain had traditionally been marketed as bulk commodities to bulk markets.
But the containers could provide opportunities to explore new markets and attract higher premiums above traditional bulk cargoes.
Mr Metz said a 15-month research project has been proposed to determine if the project was feasible, with issues such as accessing containers, continuity of trade and identifying new markets needing to be addressed.
“Other ports have a lot of product coming in containers,” he said.
“We don't have that so we are going to have to relocate containers here, that's going to be a significant cost.
“We have to find out if that cost will undermine the concept, and if so the project won’t progress past stage one.”
The project is proposed in two stages, stage one preliminary feasibility and stage two in-depth market and supply chain research.
Mr Metz said phase one of the project would begin in earnest in July, if Royalty for Regions funding is provided, finishing later this year.
“At the end of stage one we will step back, review our initial findings make a decision if it is feasible,” he said.
“If not we will leave it where it is.
“However if the findings are positive we will then proceed to the final year of the study, looking into markets, handlers and the overall logistics of the trade.”
Mr Metz said a container grain market could also provide alternative crop options for local growers.
“In low rainfall regions we don't really have a Brassica crop, canola doesn't really grow that well in the low rainfall mallee,” he said.
“Mustard may be an option but at the moment there is no path to market for that grain.
“If we can find those niche markets they will bring crop diversity to growers, making their farming systems more robust as well as spreading their commodity price risk beyond the traditional crop types.”
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