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The National Australia Bank's National Wheat Advance has been improved to include Feed Wheat. In further enhancements, the product is now available to sharefarmers and funds can be accessed via telephone and internet banking for the first time since the product was launched in the year 2000. National Agribusiness General Manager Mike Carroll said that in a year of many failed crops and reduced yields, growers need more flexibility. "After an extremely strong response from Australia's wheat growers last year, particularly among larger growers, we expect the popularity of the National Wheat Advance to grow," Mr Carroll said. "While we are continually improving this product, we are also always looking for ways to assist farmers who have been affected by the drought. Incorporating Feed Wheat will help customers whose crops are of poorer quality this year. In some cases, Feed Wheat is all that is being harvested.
"In response to a high level of enquiry, the product is also now available to sharefarmers, so even more Australian wheat growers have access to this facility to help manage their cash flow with flexible drawdowns. "Another new advantage of the National product is that funds can be drawn down 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via internet banking. Telephone banking can also be used from 8:00am to 8:00pm AEST." Under the facility the National will underwrite the wheat price and take the risk of a fall in the price of the wheat. This provides a risk free loan against the growers' wheat. Underwriting fees are tiered in relation to the nominated borrowing limit. Last year the National introduced unprecedented flexibility in the way wheat growers were able to finance their cash flow for wheat delivered into the AWB wheat export pool. Growers can nominate an underwriting level and borrowing limit of 50%, 60%, 70% or 80% of the value of their wheat based on their estimated pool return (less an estimate of costs for storage, handling port charges, freight, levies and the National's underwriting fee and financing).
"We have brought a new level of competition to this market segment," Mr Carroll said. "These new improvements to the National Wheat Advance and other developments such as soft commodity hedging products, demonstrate the National's commitment to keep on innovating and giving our agribusiness customers leading edge financial solutions." The National provides financial services to approximately one in three Australian farmers and employs over 500 Agribusiness specialists in over 100 locations.
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