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Speeches Agriculture | August 15, 2019

Grain Trading

Victorian Parliament - August 15, 2019 Ms KEALY (Lowan) (09:51:24): The recent collapse of GrainPro is just another example of the high exposure of grain and hay producers to losing significant amounts of money due to grain trading companies entering administration with no government protections in place. This follows the collapse of Lempriere Grain earlier this year and other grain trading companies recently, sometimes with the same people running a series of failed grain trading companies. Unfortunately Labor have not taken any action to better protect farmers from grain trading risks, which is disappointing for some growers and absolutely disastrous for others. I have heard many stories of local producers losing a lot of money, some up to $80 000 in a single transaction. There are many examples of governments providing better protections for farmers across the world, including a mandatory code of practice to be introduced for grain traders or a licensing system. I urge the Minister for Agriculture to urgently provide better protections for our grain producers before the next grain trader goes broke, bringing local growers down with them.