Nutrien Ag Solutions is scrambling to ensure disruptions to its Western Australian fertiliser supply chain is kept to a minimum following a serious fire at its Kwinana fertiliser warehouse on Friday.
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Andrew Duperouzel, western region manager at Nutrien said there was damage to port infrastructure at the Kwinana Bulk Jetty, including at the Nutrien bulk fertiliser site, where it stores granular fertiliser products.
The fire, which started on a conveyor moving sulphur, required 11 people to be evacuated from the Nutrien site.
Mr Duperouzel did not confirm a volume of fertiliser destroyed by the blaze but said the company was now working to ensure there were no delays in getting supplies to farmers in the critical autumn pre-sowing period.
"Nutrien remains focused on ensuring our products continue to be dispatched to our farmer customers across the state in a safe and timely manner," Mr Duperouzel said.
He said the company would have to figure out alternative transport routes and storage solutions among other things as a result of the fire.
"We are assessing the damage to our site and working closely with Fremantle Ports to confirm new access routes, adjusted shipping schedules and alternate storage solutions to ensure we minimise any impact to our supply chain."
Mr Duperouzel said Nutrien had other fertiliser depots within the state, at Geraldton, Esperance, Albany and Henderson, another port on Perth's southern fringes near Kwinana.
"It's business as usual for Nutrien's other storage depots across Western Australia, so we are still receiving and dispatching product from our other locations."
The issues will be in granular fertiliser supplies.
"Our liquid Bulk N fertiliser storage and chemical manufacturing, Genfarm, facilities were not impacted by this fire incident."
He said Nutrien would work to keep customers informed on the situation.
"We will continue to keep you updated and we encourage our customers to talk to their local branch about their input needs."
Gregor Heard
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
