CBH Group opens new Esperance fertilizer facility

After achieving a 47% increase in sales last year, CBH’s fertilizer business has entered a new phase of growth with the Esperance facility now fully operational.

CBH Chair Simon Stead said the milestone is an exciting step towards delivering significant benefits to Western Australian grain growers.

“As a core function of the co-operative, CBH Fertiliser is committed to delivering on the strategy of reducing grower’s on-farm input costs and improving the consistency of fertiliser supply in Western Australia,” said Mr Stead.

“The opening of our new Esperance facility will enable us to bring surety of supply to Esperance growers and bring further competitiveness to the market.”

Head of Fertilizer David Pritchard said that CBH is aiming to fill a gap in the market.

“Given the remoteness of the Esperance Port Zone, we believe there is a gap in the market from a supply and pricing perspective,” said Mr Pritchard.

“We have also seen demand for fertilizer, particularly nitrogen, grow exponentially in recent years, with the existing market struggling to keep pace during key times.”

“Growers in the Esperance area have continued to support CBH from a marketing, storage and handling point of view so we are looking forward to working with growers and bringing further competitiveness to the fertiliser market.”

"We hope to execute 25 000 t at the site this year, which will enable us to get the process right and get growers comfortable with new competition,” said Mr Pritchard.

Located 3.5 kilometres north-west of the Esperance Port on Flinders Circuit in Chadwick, the facility is owned by Qube and operated by CBH Fertiliser. The purpose-built warehouse is designed for fertilizer storage, blending and loading of trucks with a full range of granular phosphates, nitrogen, potash and sulfur products.

CBH Fertiliser has installed the latest Yargus blending equipment to allow for accurate and high-capacity blending of multiple products plus specialties such as liquid copper, zinc and fungicides.

Designed with segregations inside, the facility includes a drive-through, under cover area for trucks, a CBH owned and operated front-end loader and a weighbridge to allow for greater control of costs and efficiencies at the site.

Despite a volatile global fertiliser market from a price and supply perspective, CBH Fertiliser has worked hard to ensure all shipments contracted for 2022 arrive safely and on time.

“We strongly believe that we have set the benchmark for urea pricing across the past few months and are happy to share this pricing with growers to continually challenge input costs,” said Mr Pritchard.

"If growers have any questions about our new Esperance facility, products, pricing or supply, please contact the CBH Fertiliser team or visit our website.”

Read the article online at: https://www.worldfertilizer.com/project-news/01062022/cbh-group-opens-new-esperance-fertilizer-facility/