WHILE selling grain to CBH Group might have its difficulties, there is money to be made from persevering, with growers sometimes fetching more than $100 per tonne extra when compared to what has been offered by other marketers.
With the co-operative only buying a select amount of grain and limiting growers' contracts to 200t per day, many shareholders have been understandably frustrated after continuously missing out on selling to CBH entirely.
However, the reason for the limit is due to the sheer amount of demand from growers to sell their grain to CBH and ultimately that demand has been driven by price.
Chief marketing and trading officer Jason Craig acknowledged the frustration growers were facing and said CBH was trying to provide as much access as possible to its pricing.
"There is significant demand from growers for the pricing we're offering and as a result we bought significantly more from growers in October this year than we did in the same month last year," Mr Craig said.
"The pure reason for the prices we're posting is because we want to reflect international values and create and return value back to WA growers.
"The question is why aren't other players also posting international values?"
Over the past couple of weeks the price spread has blown out and now there is more than $100/t difference at some ports and for some commodities.
On Wednesday last week, wheat (APW1) was being offered by CBH at Esperance for $480/t.
At the same time and for the same grade, Australian Grain Export (AGE) was offering $425/t and GrainCorp had set its price at $370/t.
On the same day, CBH was offering $900/t for canola CAN1.
At the other end of the spectrum, AWB and GrainCorp put bids at $835/t and AGE at $760/t.
The numbers do not lie and as asked by Mr Craig - if CBH can offer WA growers a price closer to export parity, why aren't the other marketers doing the same?
It's a question which for the most part, other marketers wouldn't answer.
Both GrainCorp and Viterra declined to comment due to commercial obligations.
AGE never responded to Farm Weekly's calls.
In fact, the only response, albeit short, came from a spokesperson from AWB.
"AWB current prices reflect our demand which is limited due to our current export capacity and significant grain carryover," the spokesperson said.
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The price differences have not gone unnoticed, with Morawa farmer Lindsay Chappel hoping growers will try to withhold from selling to other marketers at lower prices.
"CBH is putting up a price which is commensurate with world grain prices and I think they're doing a really good job at letting growers know what their grain is actually worth," Mr Chappel said.
"They're also letting the other marketers know they're going to have to come up with a comparative price, or growers won't sell their grain to them."
To put export parity into some actual figures, last week the Saudi Grains Organisation bought hard milling wheat (12.5 per cent protein) for arrival in March to April next year.
That will most likely be supplied from the European Union or Black Sea region and the total average price worked out to be US$384.75/t delivered to their ports or CIF (carry and freight), which equates to $510/t FIS for similar grades to H2.
At Esperance last week, H2 was offered at $497/t by CBH, $437 by AGE and $380/t by GrainCorp.
With CBH reflecting the closest to international values, the other piece up in the air is what those values will look like as harvest progresses.
Over the weekend, Russia announced it would not support the grain corridor for Ukraine grain exports.
As a result, the general consensus was values across the globe should lift as it takes more grain out of the global balance sheet.
Clear Grain Exchange general manager Trent Smoker said what happened in Russia had already created a short-term upward movement in offshore pricing.
"Whether or not that will be sustained is a tough question to answer," Mr Smoker said.
"Ultimately it will depend on grower behaviours - if growers take the power to offer at the higher values, then the market will have to pay.
"So it is up to growers to dictate how much it flows through to the Australian market."
Over the past couple of years, international commodity prices have consistently been well above what growers in Australia, and particularly in WA, have been offered.
With that in mind, the question now is whether this event will be enough for other marketers to finally offer farmers in Australia an export parity price.
"Day by day, the markets change and it's really difficult to see what's going to happen," Mr Craig said.
"But we will continue to reflect export parity, whatever that may be."
