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As an independent grower membership organisation, Market Check offers advocacy and industry representation for our clients. The team regularly presents at industry events and offers commentary within the media on relevant topics that affect the grains industry and its growers. Market Check puts grower interests first when offering commentary and distributing content throughout the grains industry, and wider agricultural sector.
Soaring Costs of Production in 2022
Northern NSW based agronomist and farmer, Bradley Coleman, discusses the huge increase in input costs and its effect on costs of production this season. Brad is a private agronomist with Coleman Ag based at Rowena, servicing farming clients on the NW Plains of NSW. His clients grow a range of winter cereals, legumes and oilseeds, […] READ MORE
Farming in the Black Sea in 2022
In March this year, I sat in a farm meeting in Moldova discussing how we would continue to operate if Russia invaded. The war broke out and I remember thinking I must have missed that class at university. Our business, Green Square Agro Consulting, specialises in Black Sea crop intelligence, particularly forecasting crop yields in […] READ MORE
Uncertainty Will Continue in Fertilizer Markets – Nov 2022
The past two years have seen global fertilizer markets plagued by Black Swan event after Black Swan event. Record high values have been set, volatility not seen in the history of fertilizer and enormous amounts of risk have all contributed to where we are today, a market whose only constant is that of uncertainty. There […] READ MORE
Pulse Market Outlook – Nov 2022
Lentils Global lentil markets spent the back half of 2022 transitioning from dealing with a supply deficit to abundant supplies. Canada bounced back from a poor season in 2021 to produce 20% more than the long-term average in what was a very good crop. Combined with above-average production in Australia, global lentil ending stocks are […] READ MORE
2022-23 Barley Market Outlook – Nov 2022
Australian barley markets have notched up another tumultuous 12 months as the market faced a series of unprecedented market moving events. Writing an outlook seems as daunting as ever, with global politics, another weather affected harvest and supply chain issues seemingly wreaking havoc in the market at every opportunity – so perhaps I can confidently […] READ MORE
The Secret Sauce of Grain Marketing
Market Check’s Head of Strategy, Nick Crundall, discusses how best to manage grain price risks in a volatile market. Volatile Markets The grain markets are becoming more and more volatile, as a cocktail of historically tight supply and demand fundamentals mix with an increasingly chaotic geopolitical situation. Volatility can be hard to handle, and even […] READ MORE
Analysing the 2022 Wheat Market and Strategies to Consider (Jan-22)
Harvest is here and wheat prices remain strong both domestically and internationally. But what is the best grain marketing strategy to capitalise on the current market and what should growers be doing with their wheat? Before we dive into the wheat market situation and strategy approaches, we must remember that we never throw all our […] READ MORE
Grain Pools – The Australian Story
Market Check founder Brett Stevenson reviews the history and evolution of grain pools in Australia. The economic impacts of the 1929 share market crash entered the Australian grain marketing arena when eastern Australia became dramatically short of flour. At the same time the price offered to Western Australia growers from South Africa was far more […] READ MORE
Shifting Trade Flows for Australian Grain (Oct-21)
The record large 2020-21 winter crop last season combined with our price competitiveness into the global market and shifting political landscape (e.g. China) meant that global trade flows for Australian grain shifted. New destinations opened to Australian wheat and barley that helped us reach a record export year and should put us in good stead […] READ MORE
Grain Export Watermarks Reset (Oct 2021)
The export task in 2021 has been nothing short of historic. This is especially the case when you consider that 2021 was following a long and brutal drought. This is relevant as most of the East Coast export infrastructure had either been collecting dust the past few years or reconfigured to accommodate imports given the […] READ MORE