CBH Group releases 2019 Annual Report

The CBH Group has today released our full 2019 Annual Report following the release of our Financial Report in mid-December.

The Financial Report was provided earlier to ensure grower members were kept informed of Group performance in a timely manner. As previously announced on 16 December 2019, CBH’s underlying financial performance was impacted by global grain market forces leading to a Group deficit before rebates of $13.3 million and a net loss after tax of $29.7 million. 

Some of the key highlights in today’s release of the full 2019 Annual Report include strong operational performances in a number of areas, including record-breaking rail movements and strong growth in fertiliser sales.

Driven by a near record harvest of 16.4 million tonnes, our rail infrastructure moved the largest amount on record with 8.9 million tonnes of grain sent by rail to port terminals during the 12 months to the end of September 2019. This included six million tonnes moved within the Kwinana Zone to the Kwinana Grain Terminal for bulk export. 

A total of 13.8 million tonnes was shipped from our four grain terminals, with the Kwinana Grain Terminal shipping 6.2 million tonnes of grain. This was only 30,000 tonnes shy of the shipping record set in 2016-17. 

CBH Fertiliser achieved its biggest year so far as sales continued to grow in 2018-19, with 103,000 tonnes sold, up from 90,000 in 2017-18. The business remains profitable and has retained surplus capital to expand the business further across the network. 

During the reporting period, the co-operative invested more than $1.6 million into regional grain growing communities in Western Australia through the Community Investment Fund. This included the Grass Roots Leadership Short Course, which was introduced for the first time in 2019 with a total of 76 participants, and more than $300,000 was provided to community groups as part of the Grass Roots grants program. 

As outlined with the release of the Financial Report, CBH invested a record $285.3 million into the network by expanding storage capacity, enhancing supply chain efficiency and maintaining existing infrastructure. Further details of this investment as well as the significant improvement in the co-operative’s safety performance can be accessed in the full 2019 Annual Report.