IN a bid to supply different wheat varieties to a broader customer base, CBH has opened a new international office in Portland, Oregon, in the United States.
CBH marketing and trading general manager Jason Craig said trading grain out of Portland would allow the company to offer US and Canadian wheat to key customers in the Asian region.
This will complement Australian wheat grades in its flour milling process.
"CBH currently has a strong advantage in the Asian region and has well established relationships with end users," Mr Craig said.
"We have offices in Hong Kong and Japan and key investments in the flour milling industry through Interflour.
"The Portland office will enable us to further strengthen our trading and marketing relationships in the region and service our customers' requirements with origination from multiple locations."
Consumption of grain-based products in the Asian region has been increasing dramatically and during the next five years, demand for an additional 11 million tonnes is expected.
Mr Craig said CBH had worked hard to be in the position to capitalise on the region's requirements.
"Since deregulation we have grown our customer base to span 260 customers over 30 countries, trading roughly 7mt a year," he said.
"We are looking to grow this figure and working with our natural advantages into the Asian region by supplying multi-origin grain makes a lot of sense."
CBH head of marketing Tom Puddy said the location of its new office in the Pacific Northwest grain-growing region was strategically chosen because wheat varieties coming out of the US and Canada were increasingly in demand by CBH customers.
"There is a strong demand for wheat varieties that grain growers in Australia simply don't produce and we want to get in on the action," Mr Puddy said.
"To do this we need to be able to meet the varied needs of our customers."
According to Mr Puddy, Australian grain is commonly used as a baseload.
"What we've been doing is blending wheat together to get a better product and cater to our customer needs," he said.
"For example, we'll use 60 to 70 per cent Australian wheat, and then another wheat variety is bought and added to either increase or decrease the quality and price."
Mr Puddy said that unlike Australia, Canada had wheat varieties with 14-15pc protein.
He said demand for Soft Red Winter, High Red Winter, low protein varieties like Soft White Wheat and high protein varieties like Dark Northern Spring was rising.
"We had to decide whether to compete or participate and our move into the US puts us in a very good position to participate and give our customers what they want, to produce what they want," he said.
Last year CBH became the first Australian trading company to gain accreditation from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) to import wheat directly into Japan, allowing participation in the MAFF wheat tender process.
Mr Craig said this accreditation would allow CBH to be the first Australian grain company to trade wheat from the US directly through the MAFF tender system.
The move into the US market is expected to have significant benefits for Australian growers, according to Mr Puddy.
"Because we're a co-op, for us to grow the business we really need to get into those key markets and grow our business model," he said.
"In the longer term this decision means we will be able to bring value back to Australian growers by adding more products."
CBH wheat trader Sam Nottle has been appointed as the senior commodity trader and will head up the Portland operation.
