GeelongPort recently played a key part in helping Flexi Grain facilitate a 52,000 tonne export sale of durum wheat, bound for Algeria in Northern Africa.
The shipment from GeelongPort is another major export sale made by Flexi Grain on behalf of its growers.
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.
“We pre-accumulated 25,000 tonnes down to Geelong over the last six or seven weeks and inter segregated storage to manage the quality,” he said. “As we were loading the vessel, we 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 worked very closely with our storage and handling partners up country, with Riordan in Geelong, and all of our transport providers to bring it all together and the result is a credit to all involved.”
Global durum supply is currently tight and the demand for Australian product is strong.
Flexi Grain sees an excellent opportunity to put together further cargo on behalf of growers this season, with current global prices historically high.
GeelongPort’s General Manager of Commercial Elias Anastasiou said GeelongPort was proud to provide facilities for organisations like Flexi Grain to facilitate exports for their growers, direct from farm to ship.
“At GeelongPort we have a strong focus on working closely with our customers to provide a tailored and agile approach to their operations,” he said.
“We are continually looking at ways to evolve our assets and services to best meet the needs of our customers and it’s great to see this work come to life in exports such as this.”
This is the sixth 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.
To learn more about their program, visit their website here: NSW Growers Export 52,000 Tonnes of Durum Wheat to Algeria – Flexi Grain