Australia delays Viterra grain port auction plan

Australia’s competition regulator has halted a proposal by grain handler Viterra to auction port capacity after similar auctions in other parts of the country have exposed problems allocating capacity despite a bumper harvest. Viterra, Canada’s largest grain handler, has been working on plans to introduce an auction system to allocate port terminal capacity in South


Agrium Sees AWB As A Platform For Retail Growth – for Sep. 9, 2010

Fertilizer maker and farm products retailer Agr ium Inc. sees Australia’s AWB as the perfect platform to continue expanding its global retail network, said a top company executive Aug. 16. Agrium has launched an unsolicited $1.1 billion bid to acquire AWB, Australia’s largest wheat exporter, trumping a rival offer from Australia’s GrainCorp. “The key is



Australia’s GrainCorp To Buy Rival AWB – for Aug. 5, 2010

SYDNEY/REUTERS Australia’s GrainCorp has agreed to take over smaller rival AWB in an A$855 million (US$769.6 million) all-share deal that will create the country’s top grain exporter and the world’s fourth-largest commercial malt producer. GrainCorp said July 30 its offer would create a combined group with a market capitalization of more than A$2 billion that

In Brief… – for Oct. 8, 2009

Conditions worsen: Violence on Zimbabwe’s farms, once the country’s economic mainstay, is worsening, the country’s Commercial Farmers Union said on Sept. 30. Many white farmers have been evicted from land by President Robert Mugabe’s government since 2000, as part of a land reform program credited with causing a slump in agriculture. “The reality is that


Australia’s GrainCorp, Cargill Reconfigure Partnerships

Global commodities firm Cargill Inc. and Australia’s GrainCorp Ltd. will end a grain-buying joint venture after the scrapping of Australia’s wheat export monopoly made the two competitors. Cargill will buy GrainCorp’s holding in Australian Grain Accumulation (AGA) Services for an undisclosed amount, GrainCorp said on April 3. GrainCorp will form a new grain-buying team, while

Australia Grain Pipeline Needs Investment

“East coast grain exports are moving at absolutely a snail’s pace and exports generally across the industry for wheat are a lot lower than they should be.” – MI KE CHASELING Australia’s grain supply pipeline needs significant investment to overcome problems exporters face in getting grain to customers, an industry representative said March 3. Mike


Australia’s AWB finalizes restructuring

Australian agribusiness and former wheat export monopoly holder AWB Ltd. has completed a restructuring designed to strengthen its grain-marketing business. AWB, Australia’s largest grain marketer, said Oct. 19 shareholders had approved a new constitution as the final step in a restructuring sparked by the deregulation of Australia’s grain industry. The government opened Australia’s wheat export