A cargo of wheat is being mooted as a one-off way to clear what threatens to be a substantial carryover of grain into next year.

But growers face swallowing a bitter price pill to make it happen.

‘The fish-hook is the price,’ says Federated Farmers Grain’s South Canterbury chairman Michael Tayler, who called an extraordinary meeting last Wednesday to address the issue.

‘The timing is poor and this is the worst time to be trying to sell.’

An estimated 45,000-50,000t of wheat and slightly less barley is on growers’ farms unsold while a bumper Australian crop threatens to trigger a tsunami of feed wheat from across the Tasman.

‘The outlook is not that flash to be frank.’

With domestic demand dead due to imports earlier in the year (Rural News, May 19) and the dairy downturn, Federated Farmers representatives recently approached Viterra, the Canadian commodities giant which bought ABB Grain, to see if exports could clear silos before harvest here.

They were told it is possible, and moves are afoot to make it happen with the trader understood to have procured over 10,000t already.

Growers are copping it financially with prices well below the cost of production but this needs to happen to break the impasse.

‘I would argue this is a one-off price to clear the decks… We did try to get them to pool it and offer a minimum price but they didn’t want to,’ Tayler told the meeting in Timaru.

The turnout of over 50 growers indicated the scale of the problem.

‘I’ve never seen so many at a Grains meeting,’ he admitted afterwards.

Tayler says growers should seek an assurance grain will be shipped, and there is a need for a collective action to make that cargo happen.

Feds South Canterbury president William Rolleston echoed that at the meeting: ‘Don’t leave it up to the next guy to sell and hope that you are going to get a better price. It is really important we get a successful shipment.’

Federation Grain chairman Ian Morten stressed the importance of acting promptly to avert a storage crisis come harvest: build another silo, stick it in a bag, or get it sold for export. ‘It’s up to you to make the next move.’

A similar session to the Timaru meeting will be held at the Feds’ Ashburton office, 8pm November 5, following a meeting at Amberley yesterday and one at the Dunsandel Hotel this evening, November 3.