AUSTRALIA: ASIA may be the talk of the agriculture world, but the middle of the world markets in Africa and the Middle East are where the grain supply competition is being fought and won.
CBH began focusing on the Middle East and Africa region three years ago, putting grain marketer Sean Cowman at the helm of its operations in the region.
While his appointment marked the first time CBH had directed resources solely for that region, the market is in no way new to WA or Australia for grain exporting. In 2013/14, Iran, Yemen, Iraq and Sudan ranked in the top 10 countries to which Australia exported grain.
The region sourced more than six million tonnes of wheat from Australia in that 12-month period. Its slice of the wheat supply pie sat at 39 per cent of all exports in 2012/13, 32pc in 2013/14 and at 23pc of wheat exported so far from October last year.
By the end of the century, Africa is expected to quadruple its population to more than four billion and the Middle East’s population growth rate remains one of the highest in the world.
“The Australian wheat industry is still maturing from a marketing perspective, post-deregulation” Mr Cowman said. “We’ve only been in this new era for a limited period of time.
“We’re still developing these markets and building on our strengths and the market is always evolving.”
Mr Cowman said it made sense for Australia to take advantage of its geographical location to Asia and focus resources on this market, but it was important to diversify. Selling Australia’s grain to Middle Eastern buyers was about its qualities rather than just price.
With tough competition coming out of the Black Sea, Europe, Canada and the United States, the Middle East and Africa required more attention in developing and maintaining markets than did selling into established markets such as Indonesia, where Australia supplied almost 4mt of wheat alone in 2013/14.
“South East Asia is a region we want to protect more and more because the Middle East will come under more threat as a market as the Black Sea continues to emerge,” Mr Cowman said.
