Estimated freight rates from CBH for the 2022/23 season will increase 24 per cent

The news came just a week after shareholders were informed they would not be receiving a rebate from CBH for the third year in a row, while earlier this year, in June, supply chain fees were increased by $2.20/t.

That's all despite the co-operative expecting to announce a record surplus in its annual report, to be released in December.

Altogether, the additional fees and lack of rebates were a bitter pill to swallow for growers in a season where input costs were at an all-time high and they were unable to fully capitalise on high global grain prices due to delays by CBH in getting grain from country to port.

CBH chief operations officer Mick Daw acknowledged the magnitude of the increase and the potential impact it will have on farming businesses.

"Similar to last year's increase, the freight rate estimates at all sites have gone up due to these changing conditions and increases in costs - some more than others," Mr Daw said.

"With higher transport costs including considerable increases in the cost of fuel, up 40pc, higher driver wages due to driver shortages and an increase of 7.4pc in CPI, freight rates will increase significantly for this year.

"Looking at it from a net tonne per kilometre basis for roads, the freight rates are now more consistent across most of the network and you may want to use this to compare on a like-for-like basis with your own trucking contracts."

It's the second year in a row CBH has drastically jacked up freight rates, with an average increase of 18pc or $2.41/t in 2021/22.

The two years of large increases follow what had been at least four years of reasonable steadiness with rates in 2020/21 holding flat and only increasing by 4pc in 2019/20 accounting for inflation.

2018/2019 was more of a mix with a reduction in rates for the Albany and Geraldton zones but an increase in Kwinana and Esperance, while in 2017/18 they went up on average about 5pc and 2016/17 saw a decrease of 4pc.

MORE STORIES:

As a percentage, the increases this season were reasonably consistent across the State, from Geraldton through to Esperance.

However, at a site level the actual dollar figure varies greatly depending on distance to port.

"Some sites, especially in the Esperance and Kwinana South zones which are road only, are expected to experience a higher percentage increase than others," Mr Daw said.

"In many cases that is because the freight rates in CBH contracts with its road contractors were coming off a lower base.

"Those contracts were negotiated in a different market environment and therefore have been adjusted to meet the current competitive conditions."

The difference in the actual dollar amounts is staggering.

Those who deliver grain to Mirambeena in the Albany zone, Shark Lake in the Esperance zone or Narngulu in the Geraldton zone - all of which are 12 to 20 kilometres from port - only have to pay $1.48/t, $2.35/t and $2.64/t respectively.

Individually, Mirambeena rose 96 cents from 2021/22, Shark Lake was up 64c and Narngulu only increased 48c.

At the other end of the spectrum, there were nine sites where growers will have to pay more than $40/t in freight rates this harvest.

That includes seven in the Kwinana zone where Holleton was the highest at $45.90/t, an increase of $8.38 from last year, and two in the Albany zone with East Hyden copping $41.83/t, up $7.54.

Mr Daw said it was no secret that CBH expected freight rates to go up.

"It's important for us to have a freight capability that's able to deliver tonnes to port and we have demonstrated this year that we need to move as quickly as we possibly can at the right time of the year," he said.

"We've moved record tonnes this year, about 16.7 million tonnes from an export point of view and another 1mt on top of that domestically.

"We need to focus on lifting those tonnages up and to do that we need robust contracts and we've got to make sure we recognise that in terms of our rates."