Farmer owned agribusiness Free Eyre and Australia’s largest independent grain grower advisory service, Market Check have joined forces in South Australia.
Market Check will provide advisory and marketing services to Free Eyre members.
Free Eyre is an Eyre Peninsula based rural investment vehicle for growers dedicated to investing in projects that add value to the rural economy on the EP.
Chief executive at Free Eyre Mark Rodda said the Market Check deal represented a key partnership for the company in terms of grain marketing.
He said his company’s members had highlighted the need for more grain marketing services and Market Check had been chosen as the partner.
“We’ve been focusing on grain broking and our members identified the need for another type of marketing option.”
“One of the key reasons for choosing to work with Market Check is their independence, they are not aligned with any of the major grain companies,” he said.
Head of marketing and advisory services at Market Check Richard Perkins said the company has been operating for over 20 years and are the largest grain grower advisory service on the east coast.
He said his company had noted the strong growth in the grains sector in South Australia and on the EP in particular in recent years and wanted to extend its footprint in this area.
“This arrangement with Free Eyre is a great way of getting further involved in South Australia,” he said.
As part of the deal, Free Eyre members will have access to both Market Check’s grain marketing advice via their membership services and their managed pool programs.
“These pool programs boast an exceptional track record and have delivered growers among the best returns of any similar pool manager throughout Australia over the past five years,” Mr Rodda said.
“That outperformance above competitors was a real clincher for us,” Mr Rodda said.
Mr Perkins said the Market Check pools were the largest by volume in the country in terms of independent pool providers.
Market Check operate pre-harvest, harvest and post-harvest managed programs, which carry a heavy emphasis on the use of hedging tools such as swaps and options to ensure the best possible farm gate returns for growers.
In terms of advisory service, Mr Rodda said the feedback from growers was that they wanted advice that could be related back to a local level.
“Market Check offer tailored advice port zone by port zone, and this has been really well received by our members – they want someone to help make sense of all the data coming from the industry globally and interpret what it means for them at a local level.”
Free Eyre has worked with other grain marketers previously.
It had a deal with Emerald Group some years ago, while more recently Plum Grove provided pool services to the group.
Officials from both Free Eyre and Market Check have been at this week’s Eyre Peninsula Field Days highlighting the advantages of the partnership to growers.
