EMERALD Grain’s Edenhope receival site, in far western Victoria, is out of action as farmers in the area ramp up towards peak harvest.
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David Johnson, Emerald managing director, confirmed the site, known as Edenhope Storage, was closed indefinitely, although he said he was hopeful the closure would only be for a short period.
“At this stage we don’t have an estimated time for the site to reopen, there is a planning issue we need to work out with the local council, so while we are hopeful of getting it sorted quickly we have not put a timeframe on when that will happen,” Mr Johnson said.
The site, capable of holding 80,000 tonnes is located in a traditional sheep grazing region with a relatively thin spread of bulk handling centres and has emerged as an important receival centre for canola and cereals in particular.
Growers will now look to deliver to alternative sites, with the closest GrainCorp sites at Natimuk and Carpolac in Victoria or Naracoorte in South Australia or Viterra sites at Naracoorte and Frances in SA.
Mr Johnson said deliveries had just begun to ramp up prior to the closure of the site, which is located in the West Wimmera shire.
“We’d just started to see reasonable deliveries of new crop canola coming in.”
The closure is not the only headache for Emerald management created by the site.
Mr Johnson confirmed a damaged bunker had meant some losses to an unconfirmed amount of canola had been sustained.
He said Emerald remained committed to the site after failing to sell the site last year.