Commodity Ag finds niche in Western Australian export grain market

The Port of Albany is making news in Western Australia. A 23,000tonne grain consignment en route to Surabaya, in Indonesia, was loaded by Commodity Ag, a familyowned business that leased a mobile ship loader to undertake the operation.

The company first sought an export licence from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in March 2023. It claimed it would be handling around 50,000 tonnes of export grain per month at a common-user berth in the Port of Albany.

Commodity Ag managing director Alan Richardson noted in a statement that, “This facility not only enhances our capacity to handle traditional crops like wheat, barley and canola but also supports the expansion of new and emerging crops such as faba beans, lentils, and chickpeas that desperately need a bulk export pathway to continue expanding in Western Australia,”

This initiative by Commodity Ag is the first new grain-exporting facility to open in Western Australia since Bunge’s Bunbury terminal commenced operations some ten years previously. Other than Commodity

Ag, the Port of Albany’s other main grain exporter is the CBH Group’s terminal.

Commodity Ag additionally undertakes road transport, cattle backgrounding, and fabrication of Duraquip grain trailers. The company annually grows around 59,000 tonnes of wheat, barley, canola, oats, oaten hay and lupins at 13 sites, amounting to some 21,300ha, which are absorbed by both domestic and international customers.

Significantly, Commodity Ag wants to export additional grain produced by other suppliers, stressing this would enhance a