Western Australia’s record harvest followed the largest ever amount of grain being shipped over a one month period when January’s shipping volumes broke through 1.8 million tonnes.

According to CBH, the group had record rail movements across the state in March, achieving the largest amount of grain ever transported via rail during a one month period with 964,832 tonnes shipped.

CBH’s general manager operations, David Capper, said the successive records demonstrated the ability of CBH’s supply chain to respond to a record harvest.

“Without the appropriate infrastructure and dedication of our regional and port teams we wouldn’t be able to consistently break records,” Capper said.

“It’s important that we’re able to export growers’ grain to international customers at the time they’re wanting it and demand is normally higher in the early part of the year. So far we’ve exported around 62 per cent of the record 16.6 million tonne crop brought in during last harvest, not accounting for domestic outturns,” he said.

“We’re pleased to be able to reach these milestones while combating challenges such as flooding in February which impacted our road and rail capacity during February and March. We appreciate the ability to collaborate with our stakeholders and customers to work through these challenges.”

Capper said CBH had begun a number of strategies to help increase shipping volumes.

“We’ve continued to increase the total tonnages available through our shipping stem, aided by initiatives including better berth utilisation and increased capacity to bring grain from our upcountry network to port,” he said.

“We’re looking forward to continuing to respond to the needs of our customers and growers as we roll out the Network Strategy, focused on delivering an optimal supply chain from paddock to port.”