COMPETITION AT PORT

W.A. GRAINS GROUPBy Doug Clarke

Chairmans Report

• During harvest a number of members contact me regarding CBH operations, mainly that the highest cost to farmers operations per hectare today is getting the grain from the paddock on to the ship. (Farm Budget Guide quotes up to $91.56 per tonne from Merredin if the grain is pooled)

• On Monday the 19th of January we took these concerns to CBH and had a meeting with Colin Tutt, operations manager for CBH Storage and Handling. The meeting was most amicable and Colin indicated he would take the concerns back to management to see if they could be addressed.

• The concerns discussed were;

• CBH is more market focused than grower focused.

• There is a need for grower averaging.

• The supply chain costs are escalating and CBH needs to look at their part in the cost. (Receival and assessment fee increased by 25%, warehousing increased from between 18 and 62%, fobbing increased by 100 % in each of the last two years).

• Possible solutions discussed were;

• Franchising the current receival sites.

• Grower averaging.

• Reassessment or removal of grain classifications to enable farmers to receive the arbitrage and not the marketers.

• Should franchising be achieved then we will be able to retain receival sites, meet the growers needs and not the marketers, provide a service that better suits the growers, reduce stress at harvest instead of it being increased, remove the need to blend grain on farm to meet certain standards, improve site performance.

On farm storage, 20% of the farmers producing 80% of the grain 2009 that is 12 million tonne so if 20% equals 9.6million ton and 10% chose to leave the CBH system they could take up to 4 million tonne from the CBH system, the system would not be viable.We need to fix the current system before it collapses, the drivers are now in place for farmers to go towards more on farm storage. Due to high supply chain costs, they can not afford to use the system as it is currently operating/costing. The system needs to find efficiencies to stay viable. We need to see change now before farmers finish their budgets as there are many looking at on farm storage.Subsidiary companies need to be contributing to the group and be reducing the total costs of farmers, those that are not performing need to be cut loose.Marketers are promoting storage on farm ( and farmers are being paid for it instead of using the warehousing system and having to pay).Grain Pool should not be shutting pools while there is a GLA.There needs to be transparency in the paper work of the grain pools barley pools, all costs should be itemized.I will be meeting with Neil Wandell on Monday the 2nd of February.

Other items that were discussed.

1st ofMonth

2008Warehousing

Fees

2009Warehousing

Fees

Increase

Feb 80c / tonne $1.30 / tonne 62%March 80c / tonne $1.30 / tonne 62%April 80c / tonne $1.30 / tonne 62%May 90c / tonne $1.30 / tonne 45%June $1.00 / tonne $1.30 / tonne 30%July $1.10 / tonne $1.30 / tonne 18%August $1.10 / tonne $1.30 / tonne 18%September $1.70 / tonne $1.70 / tonne 0%October $3.00 ? ?November 1.90 ? ?December 1.80 ? ?

Costs increase while grain prices have decreased $160/tonne

Bulk Export Shipping & Port Outloading Service Charges>= 22 days N/A>= 15 days < 22 days $1.10 p/t20. Vessel Notification Fee>0<15 days $2.20 p/tA nomination fee will apply according to the length of notice a customer provides fora shipment. Notice of shipment includes the grade, tonnage & season where thecustomer has full entitlement for the nominated vessel within the zone.21. Export Outloading Charge $8.00 p/tApplies to each tonne of grain loaded onto a customers nominated vessel.This charge includes the cost of moving grain into and throughout the port terminal tobe placed in a shipping position, and loading onto a vessel.22. Shipping Overtime Charges See belowOvertime charges may be incurred where loading shifts of the vessel fall into theovertime schedules shown below.Customers are able to nominate which shifts their ship is loaded in by booking labouras instructed by them.

Fobbing Costs