Global agribusiness giant Cargill and leading Australian grain cooperative CBH Group have announced plans to work together on a large-scale oilseed crushing plant south of Perth, the Australian Financial Review reported.
Cargill had been in talks with the West Australian government about securing a site next to CBH’s Kwinana grain terminal, the 28 March report said.
The combination of Cargill and CBH, the country’s largest co-operative, could supply feedstock for a biofuel production hub proposed by global energy giant BP at its former oil import terminal at Kwinana, the Australian Financial Review wrote.
According to an earlier report by the Australian Financial Review on 3 March, CBH was set to move into oilseed crushing through a potential tie-in with BP’s US$1bn-plus investment plans for the site.
The Western Australian government was quoted as saying the Cargill project would service the domestic and export oil and meal markets and would make use of locally-grown canola.
Cargill Australia managing director Zsolt Kocza had confirmed the group was working on plans for an oilseed crushing plant with the state and CBH, the report said.
“We see a range of benefits including adding processing capacity to Australia and the ability to process Western Australian canola to oil and meal, besides supplying to the emerging biofuel market both in Australia and internationally,” Kocza was quoted as saying.
Last year, Cargill invested US$50M in upgrading and expanding its Newcastle, Narrabri and Footscray oilseed crushing facilities in Australia, the report said.
Farmers in Western Australia produced about 2.5M tonnes of canola in the last harvest, down from 4.3M tonnes in 2022/23. Most of the canola, particularly genetically modified varieties, was exported to crushing plants, with farmers paid a premium for high oil content.
“We welcome this development which provides the opportunity for a canola crushing plant to be located next to one of CBH’s critical supply chain assets – the Kwinana Grain Terminal,” CBH chief executive Ben Macnamara was quoted as saying.
Owned and controlled by approximately 3,500 western Australian grain growing businesses, the CBH Group comprises three core business activities: operations (storage and handling); marketing and trading; and fertiliser.
According to its website, the company’s operations division has a network of more than 100 grain receival sites across western Australia and four export port terminals.
CBH also has its own rail fleet for the transfer of grain from its receival sites to the port terminals.
