CBH will fight licence rejectionReport: Rose CraneWA grain...

CBH will fight licence rejection
Report: Rose Crane

WA grain farmers may soon face the prospect of fighting their case in the Federal Court to export wheat outside the current wheat export system, known as the single desk. Co-operative Bulk Handling has this morning confirmed it does plan to fight on several fronts, disputing Friday's decision by AWB International - who owns the export licence - to reject an export licence by WA's based grain marketer and handler, Co-operative Bulk Handling. CBH chief executive Imre Mencshelyi says CBH has a number of strategies they are pursuing. "Fundamentally I will be re-submitting the bulk application and will also be considering putting the application in for a similar quantity through containers, just to demonstrate the system of applications is flawed where you have AWB with the right of veto on a bulk export application, where it doesn't have any say in the application for containers." CBH is going to do some modifications to their application and resubmit it as soon as possible. Mr Mencshelyi says a legal challenge is something they'd consider.

In this report: Imre Mencshelyi, chief executive, Co-operative Bulk Handling.

AWB will continue to defend decision
Report: Rose Crane

One of the Western Australian AWB board members, Chris Moffet, says if Co-operative Bulk Handling is prepared to push the licence application dispute to the Federal Court, AWB will defend it. "We'd be lacking in our duty, blatantly lacking in our duty to the pool and to the law that we operate under if we do not justify our reasoning in an open scrutiny," he says. AWB Ltd disputes that it didn't take the licence application from Co-operative Bulk Handling seriously, and says it rejected it on sound grounds. "Can I assure everybody that any application that comes before us via the Wheat Export Authority, which is where it comes from, is treated with utmost seriousness and balanced constantly against our legal and moral responsibilities to maximise returns to growers," he says.

In this report: Chris Moffet, Mid West farmer and board member, AWB.