Article

The market for country grain storage in eastern Australia is massively over-supplied, with the big four handlers – GrainCorp, Grainflow (Cargill), Emerald (Sumitomo) and AGS (Ricegowers) – having over 27 million tons (Mt) of storage capacity. On-farm storage and smaller private operators have probably a similar amount. This 50Mt plus of storage capacity is dwarfing average annual winter and summer grain production in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria with about 25Mt. Competition is intense and it is possible that mergers and acquisitions will occur in future. GrainCorp has been unsuccessfully targeted recently by Archer Daniels Midland and Long-Term Asset Partners. Sumitomo is rumoured to have sought bids for Emerald. There is also a number of smaller private storage operators in southeast Australia on the market. – Grain Central