Ann: Annual General Meeting Addresses and Presentation, page-11

extract from AFR last Nov

GrainCorp said in May that it expected average EBITDA through-the-cycle of $310 million, up from $240 million, and cited a 10-year insurance safety net on east coast crop production taken out at the tailend of Australia’s last severe drought as a factor.

Bunge, Louis Dreyfus, Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland are among the global grain heavyweights boosting crushing capacity, sometimes in partnership with oil and gas majors, as they target the biofuel market. Cargill is investing $73 million to boost crushing capacity by 100,000 tonnes across three plants in Australia.

BP shapes as one of the potential partners for GrainCorp in WA.

The oil and gas giant has flagged spending up to $1 billion turning the former Kwinana oil refinery south of Perth into a renewable fuels plant to supply the aviation industry and heavy industry, including mining, and wants local feedstock.

BP has traded biodiesel and biodiesel feedstock required to produce it in other parts of the world since about 2008 and a 10-year deal with ASX-listed Nufarm around offtake and market development of Nufarm’s carinata oil.

IMF Investors, which owns plenty of infrastructure, has said it will work with GrainCorp in a bid to make Australia a leading supplier of sustainable aviation fuel. The IMF and GrainCorp plan involves steering farmers towards crops suitable for biofuel and downstream investments to supply major airlines.

IMF, owned by Australian pension funds and with more than $200 billion under management, says Australia had a comparative advantage over other countries because of its farming capability and land availability.

GrainCorp, Australia’s biggest oilseed crusher and exporter of tallow and used cooking oil, and IMF are eyeing the potential to add value through onshore processing.

GrainCorp is investing in WA – where the company has nothing like the vast storage and handling networks and port terminals it owns along the East Coast – because the state produces most of Australia’s canola.

“Australia’s got a significant surplus of oil seeds and of the oil seed that we export, principally to Europe, we reckon about 75 per cent of that ends up ultimately in renewable fuel,” Spurway says.

“The largest portion of the exportable surplus is in WA, and that’s why we think that would be a good location. It also aligns with opportunity in terms of the good port infrastructure in WA to be able to export to other locations in Australia and proximity to South-East Asia.”

UBS said the WA investment made sense based on strong demand for canola oil driven by the rise of biofuels.

GrainCorp is now in talks about supply from WA farms as well as with potential biofuel customers and partners.

Farmer-controlled CBH, Australia’s biggest co-operative, dominates grain storage and handling in WA where it operates four port terminals.

A generation of GrainCorp leadership craved a piece of the action in WA, culminating in a failed bid to corporatise CBH in 2016 with the backing of Aware Super (then known as First State Super).


Just to add a little - the newer tech oilseed crushing plants are getting higher (not sure how much) yield. I believe India is a leader in this oilseed yield - good space to be in methinks