The group will depart tomorrow morning for the 11hour direct flight back to Perth.
Any questions or comments, please contact CBH Group or the Middle East tour delegates.
Rob Dickie, CBH Grain
Sean Cowman, CBH Grain
Duncan Gray, CBH Operations
END
CBH MIDDLE EAST STUDY TOUR, 21-29 SEPTEMBER 2012
Friday 28 September 2012
Final post - last day in the UAE
The group have finished their official visits and have a free day today. Attached are a couple of photos of Dubai and the lifestyle available for some of the residents.
The group will depart tomorrow morning for the 11hour direct flight back to Perth.
Any questions or comments, please contact CBH Group or the Middle East tour delegates.
Rob Dickie, CBH Grain
Sean Cowman, CBH Grain
Duncan Gray, CBH Operations
END
The group will depart tomorrow morning for the 11hour direct flight back to Perth.
Any questions or comments, please contact CBH Group or the Middle East tour delegates.
Rob Dickie, CBH Grain
Sean Cowman, CBH Grain
Duncan Gray, CBH Operations
END
Thursday 27 September 2012
Day seven (Thursday) - daily summary
Author : Brady Green, NE Nabawa
Kuwait is our final official engagement on this trip, on arrival you can see this country does not focus on the bling and glamour that is Dubai. This country has a lot of wealth but they don't look to tourism as an industry of importance.
As we arrived at the Kuwait Flour Mills were small trucks and utes lined up and spilling out into the streets, these people were here to pick up their orders of grain for feeding their camels cows and sheep,it was organized chaos .
Kuwait food company is govt owned, they prefer to buy Australian wheat and barley and have done so for 30 years, they take 30,000 ton per month of barley and 20,000 ton per month of wheat.
Salah is the MD , he was a very pleasant man who speaks very highly of the relationship we have. He spoke about during the Iraq invasion how Australian soldiers cleared the silos and buildings here of bombs and mines so they could begin business again. The responsibility this company has is to feed their population, they are currently building silos that will give them storage for 375000 ton, this will feed the people for just over 3 months, hence once again we get an understanding of why food security is such a high priority to the people in the middle east. Salah spoke of 2008 when they were in the position to but grain, they had lots of money but were shocked to find export bans all around the world, on of the only countries that could supply grain were Australia. This again strengthened the relationship which is why they are prepared to pay premium.
After hearing so much complaining about quality decline in our wheat it was nice to listen to a large importer speak so highly of our grain and the way we conduct business.
END
Kuwait is our final official engagement on this trip, on arrival you can see this country does not focus on the bling and glamour that is Dubai. This country has a lot of wealth but they don't look to tourism as an industry of importance.
As we arrived at the Kuwait Flour Mills were small trucks and utes lined up and spilling out into the streets, these people were here to pick up their orders of grain for feeding their camels cows and sheep,it was organized chaos .
Kuwait food company is govt owned, they prefer to buy Australian wheat and barley and have done so for 30 years, they take 30,000 ton per month of barley and 20,000 ton per month of wheat.
Salah is the MD , he was a very pleasant man who speaks very highly of the relationship we have. He spoke about during the Iraq invasion how Australian soldiers cleared the silos and buildings here of bombs and mines so they could begin business again. The responsibility this company has is to feed their population, they are currently building silos that will give them storage for 375000 ton, this will feed the people for just over 3 months, hence once again we get an understanding of why food security is such a high priority to the people in the middle east. Salah spoke of 2008 when they were in the position to but grain, they had lots of money but were shocked to find export bans all around the world, on of the only countries that could supply grain were Australia. This again strengthened the relationship which is why they are prepared to pay premium.
After hearing so much complaining about quality decline in our wheat it was nice to listen to a large importer speak so highly of our grain and the way we conduct business.
END
Kuwait Flour Mills & Bakeries - Kuwait City, Kuwait
Some photos from the last official appointment of the delegation, being the Kuwait Flour Mills & Bakeries KFMB.
KFMB use a large amount of feed barley for both compound feed and for the bagging of feed barley for the Bedouin, but they are also a massive flour milling operation with 225,000mt of grain storage, multiple mills and 9 bakeries giving them a market share of more than 70% of all baked products in Kuwait.
There is an additional 150,000mt of grain storage being built on site now for food security purposes.
More words will follow tomorrow.
KFMB use a large amount of feed barley for both compound feed and for the bagging of feed barley for the Bedouin, but they are also a massive flour milling operation with 225,000mt of grain storage, multiple mills and 9 bakeries giving them a market share of more than 70% of all baked products in Kuwait.
There is an additional 150,000mt of grain storage being built on site now for food security purposes.
More words will follow tomorrow.
Day six (Wednesday) : daily summary
Author : Jon Hasson, Ballidu
Bus trip of one and half hours to neighboring Emirate state of Abu Dhabi to visit the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority and then Al GhurairFoods flour mills at the Jebel Ali port.
Abu Dhabi contributes about 60% of the UAE GDP and 90 % of this revenue comes from oil. They are highly industrialized and highly developed and show no signs of slowing down with new building and infrastructure in progress everywhere. Now I am beginning to understand the scale and thirst the world has for our iron ore. Upwards of 80% of the population are expats.
The Food Authority was established to ensure food safety, food quality and food research and development. We gave a PowerPoint presentation of the CBH Group which was again well received. We them went to an impromptu meeting with officials from the State Fund for Development and were informed of the new food security project which comprises of 50x 15,000mt at the Fujeirah port.
Our last stop was a tour of the Al Ghurair mill at Jebel Ali port. The tour was not extensive, but some quick facts : they import 1.5M mt of wheat ach year which about 120k is Australian, they mill and convert many other commodities to service countries across the world, one market is canola l into Europe. T is ok to import GM canola oil but not GM canola seed. Go figure !. Grain is stored in 24 x 11,000mt concrete silos, 19 meters in diameter and 54 meters tall with 300mm thick walls. The Government is planning to build a freight airport adjacent to the shipping port, with intention to guarantee movement of freight from ship to plane or vice versa in 30 minutes.
Trip observations so far :
Middle East millers want quality wheat but price is always king. These guys run highly efficient businesses and know exactly what they want and invariably get it. They are very friendly and accommodating hosts, however their lives appear to revolve around business, work and religion. They have incredible wealth. Australia is a small fish in a big pond. What CBH Group has is unique in the world grain industry and every group we have met has been genuinely impressed with our structure and the fact we have control over so much of the supply chain. I firmly believe any attempt to change this structure will only result in short term gain at the expense of long term stability and market advantage.
END
Bus trip of one and half hours to neighboring Emirate state of Abu Dhabi to visit the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority and then Al GhurairFoods flour mills at the Jebel Ali port.
Abu Dhabi contributes about 60% of the UAE GDP and 90 % of this revenue comes from oil. They are highly industrialized and highly developed and show no signs of slowing down with new building and infrastructure in progress everywhere. Now I am beginning to understand the scale and thirst the world has for our iron ore. Upwards of 80% of the population are expats.
The Food Authority was established to ensure food safety, food quality and food research and development. We gave a PowerPoint presentation of the CBH Group which was again well received. We them went to an impromptu meeting with officials from the State Fund for Development and were informed of the new food security project which comprises of 50x 15,000mt at the Fujeirah port.
Our last stop was a tour of the Al Ghurair mill at Jebel Ali port. The tour was not extensive, but some quick facts : they import 1.5M mt of wheat ach year which about 120k is Australian, they mill and convert many other commodities to service countries across the world, one market is canola l into Europe. T is ok to import GM canola oil but not GM canola seed. Go figure !. Grain is stored in 24 x 11,000mt concrete silos, 19 meters in diameter and 54 meters tall with 300mm thick walls. The Government is planning to build a freight airport adjacent to the shipping port, with intention to guarantee movement of freight from ship to plane or vice versa in 30 minutes.
Trip observations so far :
Middle East millers want quality wheat but price is always king. These guys run highly efficient businesses and know exactly what they want and invariably get it. They are very friendly and accommodating hosts, however their lives appear to revolve around business, work and religion. They have incredible wealth. Australia is a small fish in a big pond. What CBH Group has is unique in the world grain industry and every group we have met has been genuinely impressed with our structure and the fact we have control over so much of the supply chain. I firmly believe any attempt to change this structure will only result in short term gain at the expense of long term stability and market advantage.
END
Wednesday 26 September 2012
Jebel Ali Port - Dubai, UAE
On the way back from Abu Dhabi we took the opportunity to drop in at the Jebel Ali Port where Al Ghurair Resources has a large amount of grain processing and oil refining investment.
The Port is extremely large and located in an industrial area not far from the city of Dubai.
More words to follow tomorrow in the daily summary.
The Port is extremely large and located in an industrial area not far from the city of Dubai.
More words to follow tomorrow in the daily summary.
Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority - Abu Dhabi, UAE
Some photos of the visit to Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority. Abu Dhabi is a 2 hr bus ride from Dubai on a 4 lane (each way) highway with a maximum 140km hr speed limit in parts. Our bus couldn't handle that and we sat in the slow lane the whole way.
Key discussion topics were around food security and how we could work together to contribute to strategic reserves of grain as a food security initiative.
More words to follow tomorrow.
We also had an impromptu meeting with the Abu Dhabi Fund For Development, also on the topic of food security, as they are about to commission a 300,000mt silo grain storage facility at a local port. The cost of development was in the order of USD1.5 billion.
Key discussion topics were around food security and how we could work together to contribute to strategic reserves of grain as a food security initiative.
More words to follow tomorrow.
We also had an impromptu meeting with the Abu Dhabi Fund For Development, also on the topic of food security, as they are about to commission a 300,000mt silo grain storage facility at a local port. The cost of development was in the order of USD1.5 billion.
Day five (Tuesday) : daily summary
Author : Mike Wake, Esperance
1. plan, set goals and buy in expertise : Lunch at Bastakiam Nights restaurant with Pankaj Savara from the WA Trade Office. Pankaj explained how he handles 62 countries in his Middle East and Africa portfolio. Example, Yemen is a conservative country, compared to the UAE who set 5year plans and made it all happen.
2. Confirmed mechanism and bring in the best management in the world (oil = money no limit). Visited IFFCO Emirates Grain Products, spoke with production manager Mr Mayloob Ahmed about their gravity feed process which saves energy, they are on a small area of land, at Port, with a staff of 28, versus Oman Flour Mill with a staff of 180, 5km from Port, with a lot of manual handling.
3. Build relationships with farm base in Australia. Grain straight from farm, expressed desire of CEO Djamal Djouhri of Al Ghurair Resources. When questioned CBH does qualify for this but not sure of the genuine desire to assist farmer, versus access to grain. We need expertise and support.
4. IFFCO MD Sanjeev Bhatia investing in the future preference for grain from the east coast of Australia, as it has better protein and gluten than west coast wheat, so a better baking result.
5. Pankaj Savara, land shrinking in urbanizing India, Pakistan, also by salinity and encroaching pollution in China.
Conclusion for the day, visualize a dynamic future. Stop whinging and start pitching for our strategic advantage by taking control and adding value. You can't do for people what they could and should do for themselves. Australia is a great land of opportunity. Adopt a can do attitude , so that whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon must enviably come to pass.
END
1. plan, set goals and buy in expertise : Lunch at Bastakiam Nights restaurant with Pankaj Savara from the WA Trade Office. Pankaj explained how he handles 62 countries in his Middle East and Africa portfolio. Example, Yemen is a conservative country, compared to the UAE who set 5year plans and made it all happen.
2. Confirmed mechanism and bring in the best management in the world (oil = money no limit). Visited IFFCO Emirates Grain Products, spoke with production manager Mr Mayloob Ahmed about their gravity feed process which saves energy, they are on a small area of land, at Port, with a staff of 28, versus Oman Flour Mill with a staff of 180, 5km from Port, with a lot of manual handling.
3. Build relationships with farm base in Australia. Grain straight from farm, expressed desire of CEO Djamal Djouhri of Al Ghurair Resources. When questioned CBH does qualify for this but not sure of the genuine desire to assist farmer, versus access to grain. We need expertise and support.
4. IFFCO MD Sanjeev Bhatia investing in the future preference for grain from the east coast of Australia, as it has better protein and gluten than west coast wheat, so a better baking result.
5. Pankaj Savara, land shrinking in urbanizing India, Pakistan, also by salinity and encroaching pollution in China.
Conclusion for the day, visualize a dynamic future. Stop whinging and start pitching for our strategic advantage by taking control and adding value. You can't do for people what they could and should do for themselves. Australia is a great land of opportunity. Adopt a can do attitude , so that whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon must enviably come to pass.
END
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