Australia: South Australia farmers create co-operative to market their barley on deregulated market

Farmers on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula have formed a co-operative to market their own barley in the deregulated market, ABC News reported February 27.

The barley growers have pooled their product using a business model used in the 1950s.

The grain was stored in a silo and one of the growers was responsible for selling to the highest bidder.

Farmer Richard Murdoch began the project and says they have been able to secure higher grain prices as a group.

"Well we just thought there were some opportunities to achieve a premium by having a larger parcel in one situation," he says.

"Also connected with this tender we had a retention of title where we were able to actually retain the title until payment was made so it gave us a lot of payment security".

27 February, 2008