The allegations are flying as the dust settles on Australia's first fully deregulated wheat selling season during which CBH, the big WA-based grain handler, shipper and marketer, emerged as the big winner after AWB Ltd lost its export monopoly.

Mike Chaseling, deputy chairman of Emerald Group Australia Pty Ltd, his big concerns about a lack of transparency in the newly liberalised wheat trade, particularly with access to port facilities and the availability of public data on export tonnages.

Mr Chaseling estimates the Emerald Group - an accredited wheat and barley exporter which operates in all States but does about half its business in WA – bought more than five per cent of last season’s national crop.

But it’s been a story of frustration, particularly with wildly fluctuating prices, the global credit squeeze, slow exports from port facilities, both in the west and east, and a lack of transparency between the handling and storage monopolies and their grain trading arms.

Mr Chaseling told the Outlook conference in Canberra that port facilities operated by CBH had suffered serious congestion because of a rush to ship grain soon after harvest.

He said CBH was working hard to overcome the problems which had been compounded by hefty demurrage costs (probably in the vicinity of $30,000 a day) associated with filling a contract to Iran.

Mr Chaseling said growers wanted transparency along the handling and exporting chain to ensure maximum efficiency and access to attract the maximum number of buyers at local silos.

He also said NSW was suffering from a severe lack of rail rolling stock which was doing little for growers' confidence.

*Extract from story to appear in Stock & Land, March 19.