ABB Grain was Australia's largest agribusiness. Founded in 1939, the company was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange until its takeover by

Viterra Viterra began as a Canadian grain handling business, the nation's largest grain handler, with its historic formative roots in prairie grain-handling cooperatives, among them the iconic Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. Viterra Inc grew into a global agr ...

in 2009. For most of its history, the company focused solely on grain accumulation and marketing, but it eventually expanded its focus to other activities, such as grain receival and storage, malting and

fertiliser A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

s.ABB bought grain from all growing regions in Australia and traded in all grain commodities.

History

ABB traces its origins to the former Australian Barley Board, and due to the company's expanded operations into different areas, it demutualised to become ABB Grain on 1 July 1999. In 2004, ABB merged with the South Australian storage and handling company AusBulk and the holding company United Grower Holdings. This brought the control of the two major grain handlers, along with several of AusBulk's divisions. Since its merger with AusBulk, ABB's supply chain has involved operations in storage and handling and logistics. This includes a significant network of silos and export shipping terminals in South Australia and the eastern states of Australia, incorporating joint ownership of Australian Bulk Alliance, or ABA, with Japanese trading company Sumitomo. ABB's malting division, Joe White Maltings, is Australia's largest producer of malt with the capacity to produce 500,000

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

s per annum. The eight malting plants located across Australia include the largest malthouse in the southern hemisphere, situated in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

, Western Australia. The company also provides rural services including fertiliser and agrichemical supply and

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

and livestock activities. The latter have been supported by the acquisitions of ''Adelaide Wool Company'', Wardle Co and Stawool in 2007. The company also has significant operations in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

focused on the trading and distribution of grains and

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, res ...

s. In 2007, ABB established a joint venture in Ukraine with French malting company Soufflet to accumulate grain, manage supply chain activities and market grain. On 19 May 2009 it was announced that ABB would be acquired by

, the largest grain handler in Canada in September 2009, if voted ahead by the shareholders. The Head Office would be relocated to

Regina, Saskatchewan Regina () is the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province, after Saskatoon, and is a commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. As of the 2021 census, Regina had a city populatio ...

, with the worldwide malting headquarters remaining in Adelaide. The two companies together were responsible for 37 percent of the world's exports of wheat, canola and barley. Managing director Michael Iwaniw resigned on 28 July, and shareholders approved the merger on 9 September.

References

External links

Joe White Maltings

Viterra

Soufflet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abb Grain Australian companies established in 1939 Food and drink companies of Australia Companies based in Adelaide Food and drink companies established in 1939 Food and drink companies disestablished in 2009 Barley Grain industry of Australia Grain companies Australian companies disestablished in 2009