WA growers hold onto 2015 wheat stock

Large international stocks and an unattractive Australian grain price against foreign origins have combined, leaving up to two million tonnes in the system.

CBH operations general manager David Capper said the remaining stock in the system would be managed to ensure minimal affect on taking in this year's crop.

"CBH has an unusual amount of grain in the system that is left unsold by growers at this time," he said.

"It's still a little while until harvest and a lot can change in that time."

Marketers have been shifting their shipping capacity bookings until closer to the end of the year as international buyers have been favouring cheaper origins and buying only several months in advance.

Mr Capper said depending on how many shipping slots were executed, there could be between 1.2mt and 2mt left of 2015 season grain in the system come harvest.

CBH marketing and trading general manager Jason Craig said some factors contributing to the leftover grain in the CBH system could be remedied in the coming months.

"From what we see there is a little bit of selling happening at the moment, certainly with a slightly lower dollar, but it appears to us that a lot of growers will wait until after seeding or they'll wait until a little bit further into the year to sell," he said.

The high level of competition into WA's traditional market of South East Asia from Ukraine, Argentina, Canada and to a lesser extent the United States, had hindered WA marketers in finding buyers for grain.

"The market is the market and you can't change it, but what will happen is as time goes on growers will sell the remainder of their crop as they see an opportunity," he said.

"The dollar is one of those things that could change the mindset and make selling more attractive from an Australian dollar perspective.

"With large wheat stocks around the world we are under pressure in terms of Chicago and on international values, so what we do need to see is a weakening Aussie dollar, a more attractive Australian dollar price to attract growers to sell grain."

Mr Craig said there were already positive signs in this area with the Australian dollar sitting near US80 cents recently and now sitting at about US73c, with whispers it could drop into the 60c range.

"Of course any supply shocks will affect the market, so any shocks in Russia for example or the European crop, despite them looking really good, any weather events will see this market pop up at some time," he said.

Mr Craig said these peaks as the market scrambled to secure stock would benefit WA growers and were worth watching out for in the coming months.

Tightening of the soy bean market largely due to drier weather in South America has been beneficial in terms of the canola price for WA.

Mr Craig said this meant a market such as WA, with a focus on canola, could help fill the void and prices were promising.