Announcement re: SA Asset Sale and GrainFlow Dimboola
Cargill is committed to growing our business in South Australia and across Australia more generally. To this end, we recently renewed and expanded our long-term access agreement to Viterra's export supply chain, supporting our long-term growth plans. In the next few years, we intend to double our export volumes and become one of the largest exporters from the state. This means buying more grain from farmers to the benefit of growers and the industry overall. Cargill is excited to further build on this growth in the future.
Cargill is further demonstrating its commitment to the Australian grains industry, including;
- An investment of $100m to upgrade our crush facilities in New South Wales and Victoria.
- Exploring a proposed crush facility in Western Australia to service the APAC oil and meal market and the emerging biofuel sector.
- The launch of a new product for Australian farmers, Cargill SustainConnect, which pays canola growers to trial sustainable agricultural practices.
As part of our growth plan, Cargill is optimising how we manage and grow our export volumes from South Australia, including accessing the entire Viterra network, and has agreed to sell our assets in SA and the Dimboola site in Victoria to Viterra, subject to regulatory approval.
The agreement includes Crystal Brook, Maitland, Mallala & Pinnaroo in SA and the Victorian Dimboola site, plus our mobile ship loader at the Port of Adelaide.
Due to the regulatory timing, Cargill will be operating these sites for the 2024 – 2025 harvest.
On the completion of the transaction, Viterra has committed to keeping all the GrainFlow sites open as well as making additional investments. The agreement also has a number of benefits to GrainFlow customers including:
- Increasing the number of buyers at the GrainFlow sites competing for grain to more than 45 domestic buyers and 24 exporters, providing more choice on who growers can sell to.
- Reflecting freight efficiency gains achieved across Viterra's Central and Eastern region rail sites to growers once the sites are integrated into the Viterra network.
- Viterra has undertaken to invest around $25 million into the sites in the first two years to support efficient outturns and improve delivery times. Viterra will continue investing $8 million annually to support efficient outturns and improve delivery times and the grower experience more broadly where required.
For now, it is business as usual in operating all of our GrainFlow sites.
Cargill is continuing to operate our GrainFlow sites and mobile ship loader and continues to source and export grain across South Australia and Victoria.