Australia: CBH Grain is expanding into South Australia

CBH Grain, the Western Australian grain handler and marketer is expanding into South Australia to take on AWB and ABB Grain. CBH - a subsidiary of CBH Group - handles grain on behalf of 6500 WA grain growers.

The company has appointed Mark Pontifex as its state marketing manager for its first push into SA, according to the report from Worldgrain of January 31.

''The plan was originally to drought-proof the company,'' Mr Pontifex said. ''We are a major exporter out of WA. If there were a drought, we wanted to have options to source grain.' 'We thought there was also an opportunity for growers, to give them a few other options to what already is in the market.''

Mr Pontifex said he aimed to attract SA growers by offering a ''fresh set of marketing options''.

CBH sells grain to more than 20 export destinations. One of its subsidiaries, Grain Pool, is an international grains marketing company with authority to export barley, lupins and canola from WA.