CROPPING

Record WA grain harvest exceeds 26 million tonnes

WESTERN Australia has recorded a record breaking 26.1 million tonne winter harvest following an excellent growing season.

Staff writer
 WA has produced a record grain harvest of more than 26 million tonnes. Picture Mark Saunders.

WA has produced a record grain harvest of more than 26 million tonnes. Picture Mark Saunders.

The February Grain Industry Association of Western Australia (GIWA) Crop Report says the record harvest is eight per cent higher than 2021 and 31 per cent higher than 2016, the previous record (prior to 2021).

WA has produced just over 50 million tonnes of grain in the last two years compared to about 60 million tonnes in the previous four years.

This amount includes the previous record production tonnages of 18.2 million tonnes in 2016 and 17.9 million tonnes in 2018. The total tonnes produced by Western Australian growers in 2022 equates to about two years of average production 10 years ago.

The exceptional result was due to a near record area sown of 8.9 million hectares, slightly down on 2021 and seven per cent more than 2020.

GIWA says as a result of the two good years in a row, many grower's balance sheets are strong with low levels of debt, good cash reserves and recent capital upgrades.

Along with this though, fixed costs have increased substantially, and many growers are now locked into higher production cost structures.

Looking to the season ahead, GIWA says aub-soil moisture levels are good for central and southern regions of the state although the recent climate prognosis is shifting rapidly back to a more "normal" scenario of less rainfall for the 2023 growing season.

GIWA expects the area planted to canola will swing back to well under the record two million hectares grown in 2022 if there is no autumn rain and a late break.

The CBH Group has also acknowledged the massive production year, with a record 22.7 million tonnes of grain delivered into the CBH network.

In surpassing the 2021/22 receival total of 21.3 million tonnes, almost 100 individual CBH site records were set across the network, including 53 sites that set daily tonnage records and 45 sites that exceeded their previous record for total tonnes delivered to the site in one harvest.

For the first time in the co-operative's 90-year history, CBH also received more than 600,000 tonnes in one day.

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