Huge wheat shipment leaves Geelong for Africa

A massive shipment of durum wheat sourced from 23 Riverina growers in New South Wales has been shipped through the Geelong Port and is now headed for North Africa.

The 52,000 tonne export for Algeria was coordinated through grain pool manager Flexi Grain and required over 1,500 truck loads to reach the port, where it finished loading on to the ultramax vessel the Genco Laddey last week.

The decision to use Geelong Port for such a large sized shipment is new for the grain handler, but one it’s hoping to expand on in the future.

“We’ve seen a small vessels go each year, or every second year, but we aim to probably increase that and make it more regular, especially with the larger vessels that we can now load,” Flexi Grain senior trader Sam Roache said.

“We’ve been two very big production seasons and we’ve seen port utilisation very high so it’s excellent to see Riordan’s in Geelong.”

Russia’s war on Ukraine, a large global exporter of grain, coupled with three years of high rainfall in Australia has helped push up the price, quantity and demand for Australian product.

Tags: shipment, vessel, New South Wales, Geelong Port, ultramax, export, Algeria, North Africa, durum wheat