PLANS to establish a grain marketing cooperative - incorporating storage and handling at Tailem Bend - are firmly on the table.
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A business plan was launched in front of more than 100 growers at Borrika last Friday detailing what had been accomplished and the next steps to establishing facilities for growers in the eastern area of the State.
This included outlining three sites available at Tailem Bend with access to rail and road.
The favoured site would include eight 130-metre long bunkers with an approximate capacity of 12,500 tonnes each.
There is an option for a second stage of development, which would double the capacity and include vertical storage and a packing shed.
Proponents of the cooperative have also registered the name Eastern Grain Pty Ltd with the Australian Stock Exchange as an unlisted public company. The four directors are Leighton Huxtable, Alistair Iffold, Gary Hansen and Peter Blacket.
"We have gone ahead because we believe we can no longer talk about it as a facility without a name," Mr Huxtable said.
He said Tailem Bend was the most likely spot for a storage and handling facility because it would stand the test of time. The group was unsure about the longevity of smaller sites along the rail link.
Mr Huxtable said in Western Australia there were no small sites, but larger facilities between 100 kilometres and 200km apart.
"Tailem Bend (therefore) is ideally situated," he said.
"It (grain) can go east or west (and) it obviously does go west to Adelaide. If there was a packing facility there, it is quite realistic to think it can go east."
He said the fact that Viterra's Tailem Bend site had become export-only limited access to the domestic market for a lot of growers in the Mallee region but, an alternative site in the town with access to Port Adelaide and domestic markets in the eastern states would mean more competition.
"Compared with other regions, such as Eyre Peninsula, Yorke Peninsula and the Mid North, out this way there is a lower percentage of grain that does go to export, which brings us to the point that we need access to the domestic market to get out of our silos and create more competition," Mr Huxtable told growers at the Borrika field day.
He said there would be potential to blend grain at the site, with profits from that flowing back to growers, rather than to overseas shareholders.
Mr Huxtable said he thought the plan was well received, with plenty of positive thinking and minimal negativity.
The potential of forming a partnership with one or a number of corporate agribusinesses was also flagged, which did raise some questions from growers about the risk of being taken over and sold off, as had happened in the past.
"That concern is understandable. What the growers are concerned about is they don't want a corporate to come in and take over again and sell us off," Mr Huxtable said.
"We don't want any corporates to take control - we want to keep control as growers."
Mr Huxtable said the group would be looking to model the cooperative on similar ventures, including FREE Eyre, SQP in Victoria and Moulamein and Walgett Special One in New South Wales.
