The 2008 wheat harvest is finished and as predicted by Agmates, this years deregulation of the Australian Export Wheat market has been a nightmare for growers.
What should have been a real one of those catch-up years for wheat growers after years of drought has turned into a lost opportunity.
Australia’s leading grains trading commentator Malcolm Bartholomaeus [pictured], a market analyst for Callum Downs Commodity News and grain grower at Clare in South Australia said:
“Australian grain prices usually correlated highly with prices in Chicago. But this year, instead of being $10 a tonne lower, he said they had been up to $50 a tonne lower, priced off the cheaper Argentinean and Baltic Sea wheat.”
Prior to deregulation there was only one wheat exporter – AWB, now with deregulation there are 20 exporters to deal with and as Bartholomaeus says they are $50 off the Chicago price.
Growers are not dummies and have taken matters into their own hands storing 60-70% of the crop in anticipation of a better prices.
Whilst multinational traders say they are happy with deregulation (of course, they are making money) in hindsight any honest wheat farmer would be filthy on the result. What should have been a very good ‘catch -up-year’ has turned out to be a lost opportunity.
Richard Clark [pictured] , chairman of the NSW Farmers Association grains committee, said:
“You couldn’t have picked a worse year to deregulate than this year.”
Richard Clark said it was a complex harvest that showed:
“just how unprepared the industry was for deregulation. It has turned into a logistics shambles”.
He was critical of the storage and handling systems, the slow start to the shipping program and the low prices.
Wheat growers should in particular be asking those state based farm organizations that supported deregulation how the hell they could have supported a process that has turned out to be clearly detrimental to wheat growers incomes ?
The Victorian Farmers Federation, South Australian Farmers Federation and AgForce in QLD quickly spring to mind.
Perhaps a nice ‘thank you’ letter to those organizations and these Liberal Senators who staunchly supported deregulation, Senators Bill Heffernan, and Judith Adams and Liberal MP’s Wilson Tuckey .And of course lets not forget our brilliant Agriculture Minister Tony Burke.
If you need their contact details for your letter of ‘thanks’ just let me know by way of comment and I’ll post them for you.
Have Your Say!
October 30, 2011 at 1:16 pm
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January 14, 2009 at 11:45 am
Hi
It is a very nice and good post and I like it.
January 2, 2009 at 6:50 am
Another terrible loss to growers through removal of the National Pool is the loss of Bank crop leins. The was a very valuable means of growers borrowing money to put next years crop in . Now Banks do not have the security of the price bench mark that the National Pool deleivered so they have been forced to pull this form of carry on finance.
The flow on effect of this is going to be a disarster for this years planting and if the world trend to downsize the size of the 09 crop continues the world food security issue will take a dramatic hit.
Who to blame, Yes all those above.
The solution a government backed National grain grower Coop like what WEMA suggested with their Auswheat plan.
One other comment on the 08 crop, If traders are not careful in the next few weeks a lot of wharehoused and stored on farm wheat will be donated to the AWB Pools as the cash prices on offer are disgusting and well below the cost of production and import parity. Growers have shown by holding grain that they are pissed off with getting sent back 70 years to a market where traders ripped off growers to the extent of sending them broke.To give to the Pool will be the only means by we can acheive some little comfort in hoping AWB may have been not telling all lies before we allowed growers to be kicked from the Board of our company to have it stolen from us.
There are a lot of so called farm leaders who either assisted openly or assisted from behind a bush that need to be exposed and kicked out the door.
United the Australian grains industry will survive but divided and led buy traitors our industry will shrink and die a terrible painful death of a 1000 cuts.
A happy new year to all except those who are trying to send me broke.
January 2, 2009 at 8:31 am
Its a mess and a totally unsustainable situation BUT be strong , don’t ever give up and be very resilient , sh#t is going to hit the fan in many ways in Australia and overseas this year.
In many ways the conflict the Palestinians versus Israel is very similar to small farmers versus the corporate state – the David versus Goliath situation and it is quickly coming to a point where people will have to decide where they stand on these issues. Gaza is a mirror for western people alright.
January 2, 2009 at 9:59 am
G’day Margaret,
Oh I did not realize that we could also blame the troubles of the 2008 Australian wheat harvest on the Zionists / Israeli’ / Palestinians / conflict.
As editor of this blog, I’d just appreciate it if you’d comment on just a few articles without bringing your crazy conspiracy theories into it.
I mean for god sake, how in the hell can you compare the 2008 Australian Wheat Harvest to the Hamas / Israel conflict. You can’t and I and other Agmates are starting to grow very weary of your spamming this subject across our Forums.
It’s the middle of summer and you are skating on thin ice.
January 2, 2009 at 10:12 am
“how in the hell can you compare the 2008 Australian Wheat Harvest to the Hamas / Israel conflict” – Easily , same mind-set – You can’t see it??
January 1, 2009 at 4:36 pm
I can tell you where Richard Clark was when/if we needed him….undermining the policy of the NSW Farmers Association, which was to support orderly marketing of export wheat and to support the Single desk. The current policy in the afermath of the demise of the single desk and the associated export monopoly as well as the loss of the grower controlled marketer AWB Ltd, is to support the current Government????????????????
The current NSW Farmers grains committee is now in my opinion ,a lost cause as a grower representative group.
Mr Clark, Mr Bartholomaeus and just about every other industry expert have failed to see what Grass roots growers knew would happen. The industry has been turned inside out with all the ramifications from transport logistics, storage and handling, even longer term funding for research ,to the effect on the critical mass of the Farming community needed to make this industry work, now overtly apparent for all to see.
January 1, 2009 at 4:51 pm
G’day Mark,
Happy New Year.
Do you mean to tell the community that Richard Clark was a supporter of deregulation?
January 2, 2009 at 10:59 am
My opinion is that yes, Mr Clark has been a supporter of deregulation. Having watched the NSW Farmers Grains Committee being continually undermined to the point at last years Annual Conference where the policy of the organisation to support orderly marketing was thrown out and the elected members of the Grains committee were replaced by unelected members with “special qualifications”, mostly through the back room wheeling and dealing by Mr Clark. He now heads a Grains committee that is as dysfunctional and ineffective as that of all the other State representative bodies. It is also worth noting that during the disgraceful devolution of our industries marketing arrangements Mr Clarkes wife sat on the Wheat Export Authority board, it is also worth noting that Senator Mary Jo Fisher who took part in the senate inquiry into the future of export wheat marketing is the partner of John Crosby who was part of the Industry Expert Group (IEG)…..an oxymoron??
At the final meeting to decide the fate of “A”class shareholder control of AWB, one of the State Farmer organisation reps got up at the meeting after the dubious voting results were announced and asked the AWB board if, even though growers had apparently just voted away any last semblance of power over AWB, the company could act as a receiver of last resort in the event of market failure during the 08/09 harvest!!! This is the sort of stupidity that has got the industry where it is now, if we don’t try to do something about it the wheat job will go the same way the wool industry is heading.
December 31, 2008 at 5:35 pm
wonder where these people were when it counted?
December 31, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Good Point Rowell,
Those of us that fought against it can look back and dare I say mumble “told You So”.
Cold comfort though.
Happy New Year mate. – Steve