IDEAS floated by the WA Grains Group (WAGG) to spread the pain caused by China imposing tariffs on Australian barley so growers don't have to bear the brunt, have been met with a resounding no by industry.
Last week, WAGG raised a few discussion points, such as a reduction of the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) levy and the subsiding of storage and handling of barley by CBH Group, for key industry players to start talking about.
However both GRDC and CBH shot down the ideas before discussions could even begin.
WAGG chairman Doug Smith said he realised it was too early to be able to be talking about these sorts of measures in great detail, but he wanted to start throwing some ideas around.
"It makes organisations that do have their hands squarely in growers' pockets start thinking about the role they play," Mr Smith said.
"The idea is to start flagging with them that if growers are going to wear some pain, they might need to think about coming to the table and having a fairer take of the cake.
"As an industry, we need to look at all of our options going forward and while these measures wouldn't make a huge difference, every little bit helps."
Mr Smith said growers were producing a commodity and every cost associated with that commodity needed to be scrutinised.
"The GRDC levy is one per cent of our farmgate value of what's produced," he said.
"The problem with that is that a grower can make a loss, they're input costs are $400 per hectare but their gross return on what they produce is only $350 per hectare, but they still have to pay one 1pc of that $350 to GRDC.
"They might not be able to get rid of all of the levy, but there might be something they can do if the profitability isn't there."
GRDC head of corporate affairs Kylie Dunstan said any decision to change the level and collection of the GRDC levy needed to be made by the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, in consultation with GRDC's industry representative organisations - Grain Producer's Australia and GrainGrowers Limited.
GrainGrowers chief executive David McKeon said the grains research and development levy that went to GRDC is an ad valorem levy - only paid as a percentage of sale value.
"Therefore barley farmers will be paying less if their prices remain low through the year, which is in contrast to some of the other levies paid at a flat rate on unit of sales, such as some livestock," Mr McKeon said.
"Reducing the GRDC levy rate at this time is short-sighted and during times of market challenges such as the current one in barley due to the tariffs applied by China, it is important that we continue to invest in many of the important activities around market development and technical market support.
"Other activities funded through GRDC levies, such as varietal development and farming system adaptation will also help inform farmers' decisions around next year's crop."
Mr Smith said while he understood the industry couldn't be subsidised too much, it was also important to make sure growers weren't dumping barley in the market at $150 a tonne.
"If we get to harvest and we've got 3.7 million tonne of barley and nowhere to sell it, then there's a race to the bottom on pricing and we can't afford to get into that," Mr Smith said.
"Perhaps if CBH made the storage of barley cheaper, growers would be able to market it over a longer period of time if we can't find a home for it."
CBH chief executive officer Jimmy Wilson said the co-operative already reduced fees by $4/t in 2018.
"There was some chat on Twitter around an $8/t reduction for barley, but it is unlikely we would provide that because in essence we would be charging nothing to store barley," Mr Wilson said.
He said it was time for people to start talking about the options that may need to be put in place going forward to protect the industry
"It's disappointing that after such a long period of good relationships with China and building up a good market that's valuable to both the end user and growers, that maybe we've fallen victim to another game," Mr Wilson said.
"That's the most frustrating thing for growers, if they'd done something wrong they'd cop it on the chin, but to not have done anything wrong and still be punished is a hard pill to swallow."
