Author: Gregor Heard, Farm Weekly

Date: 15th May, 2019

THE MANILDRA Group will import wheat into Australia after the Federal Government issued an import permit for a single shipment of high protein Canadian wheat.

In a statement, the NSW-based Manildra Group said it had applied for the import permit in response to the two consecutive serious droughts throughout its catchment area which created a shortfall of high protein wheat.

The grain is set to be brought in via Port Kembla and then taken by train to Manildra's Shoalhaven Starches facility at Nowra, on the NSW south coast, a distance of 70 kilometres, through primarily non-grain producing agricultural areas.

In a statement, the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR) said it was satisfied strict biosecurity protocols had been met

Grain growing lobby groups have previously expressed concern over possible wheat imports, saying it raised the risk of biosecurity breaches.

Manildra said that none of the imported wheat would go to its inland processing plants across NSW at Manildra, in the central west, Gunnedah, on the Liverpool Plains and Narrandera, in the Riverina, all in critical grain producing regions, minimising biosecurity risks.

It said it had sourced as much high protein wheat domestically as it could, however there have been recent media reports that there are ample supplies of wheat remaining in Australia, especially in WA, following last harvest.

DAWR said it had assessed the risk of the imports and had found that the grain was sourced from areas assessed as presenting a low plant and animal biosecurity risk and that it had imposed strict movement, storage and processing controls within Australia as part of granting the permit.

It is expected the cargo will arrive in Australia in the next six to eight weeks.

Wheat imports are very rare in Australia, only occurring after the 2002 and 2006 droughts and in the mid-1990s in recent memory.

Other grain businesses will take note of the Manildra decision.

There are other import applications in the pipeline with a ruling yet to be handed down.

A DAWR spokesperson said the Department had received nine applications to import bulk grain from the US and Canada, covering canola, wheat, sorghum and corn.

The story Manildra to bring in first wheat imports in over a decade first appeared on Farm Online.

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