AEGIC Ross Kingwell believes government is not doing enough to support CBH in supply chain issues

Structurally Western Australia is changing, with farms being much more crop dominant.

This has resulted in an increase in the area of cropping and an increase in crop yields over the past 20 years, with WA now having the capacity to grow huge crops, putting the grain transport system under pressure, according to Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre (AEGIC) chief economist Ross Kingwell.

CBH has committed a large amount of investment into the grain transport industry for its 2033 plan, which is instrumental in ensuring Western Australia will be able to handle structural changes in production.

"To CBH's credit, they're investing hundreds of millions of dollars in improving the supply chain," Mr Kingwell said.

"As a major investor, CBH is certainly pulling their weight and doing things quite quickly."

However, it is the areas outside of CBH's jurisdiction - such as ports - that also need to be improved, which Mr Kingwell believes is up to State and Federal governments.

"It's those entities that need to step up to ensure that not only farmers, but all those who rely on grain benefit from a more efficient and reliable supply chain," Mr Kingwell said.

"State governments need to upgrade, deepen and widen some channels, eventually, because the trend in international shipping is for there to be increasingly bigger container ships and increasingly bigger box ships."

There are also restrictions at port, whether that is the size of the berth or limitations on loading.

CBH combated some of these port restrictions this year by utilising different ships, according to CBH chief executive officer Ben Macnamara.

While some ports may be limited by the depth of ship that can dock, CBH has been able to bring in ships that are wider - enabling a bigger load during the record-breaking harvest.

There are also "huge" restrictions on coastal shipping, which Mr Kingwell believes will become essential for the future if eastern Australia experiences prolonged drought in the future.

He said compared to globally equivalent terminals, the efficiency of WA's container ports was "poor" - as they are highly unionised with very strong labour restrictions.

"The whole thorny issue of waterfront labour reform needs to be looked at," Mr Kingwell said.

"If we've got costly ineffectual supply chains, then we just won't get the same volume of export revenues that we could."

Mr Kingwell believes the challenge supply chains are facing is not the system's ability to intake the grain, rather difficulties are being experienced during transport.

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"CBH and farmers have done a very good job of getting grain off paddocks and into storage, either onfarm storage or upcountry storage," Mr Kingwell said.

"Where I think supply chains are being challenged is the ability to get it from country onto ships.

"The ability to take grain down to port has been a major limitation."

Mr Kingwell said WA was constrained by not having enough truck drivers, not having enough train sets and train drivers.

"There needs to be, and there already is by CBH, much more investment in train sets and upgrades to the rail network - trains that can carry more weight upgrading tracks, have higher axle weight bearing capacity," Mr Kingwell said.

He said back in the late 1980s, the typical size of a grain crop was about 10 million tonnes, whereas this season has shown WA's ability to grow about 20mt and plant about nine million hectares.

"The crops typically are underpinned by technologies that make it possible to pretty reliably produce reasonably yielding crops, which generate in total large volumes of crops," Mr Kingwell said.

Supply chains have been increasingly tested by farmers with the ability to grow large harvests - with harvesters that can pour out much greater tonnes per hour when compared to 30 years ago.

Farmers also have access to larger, faster trucks.

"Grain is literally pouring off the farm into receivables sites," Mr Kingwell said.

"Those receivables sites have to accommodate a bigger array of crops now, unlike 30 years ago, when the main crop was wheat - now we're growing a lot more canola, barley, oats, wheat, and we've got different grades of wheat.

"There's a big strain on the receivable network to handle a volume of crop that is coming in quickly and needs to be separated more."

After working closely with CBH to expand Western Australia's supply chain capacity, the State and Federal Governments invested a combined $200 million through the Agricultural Supply Chain Improvement Project (ASCI) said Minister for Transport Rita Saffioti.

Last week, construction began on the first ASCI Project, an upgraded and expanded rail siding in Brookton.

"I find this commentary (by Mr Kingwell) incredibly odd and misguided," Ms Saffioti said.

"Our Government recognises how important the grain industry is to Western Australia, and that is why we are making significant investments to improve our supply chains that only this year supported record grain exports.

"$72 million out of ASCI tranche one has also been allocated for the progressive reactivation of the Tier 3 rail line serving the Narrogin-Kulin-Wickepin area, with studies being undertaken this year to better understand the requirements to get the line back up and running, and also the needs of local industry and businesses.

"We're also investing billions to improve our regional roads and increase the capacity of the state's ports, like the $350 million expansion of Geraldton Port, which will help increase our grain exports in the future."