Openfield new crop exports off to a busy start

Farmer co-op Openfield has got exports off to a flying start this season, with 10 boats loaded with 40,000t of new crop barley and oilseed rape since harvest began.

Three oilseed rape shipments totalling about 8,000t have left the UK and seven feed barley boats holding a total of 32,000t.

The first new crop feed barley shipment was loaded at Ipswich, Suffolk, on 14 July with more than 4,200t from farms across East Anglia. Shipments have also been made from Portbury, Bristol, and King’s Lynn, Norfolk.

The Arklow Cape left Portbury on 20 July with 4,288t of feed barley from farms in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire bound for Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

The Arklow Cliff (pictured) began loading her maiden voyage in Ipswich on Monday (31 July) with 4,200t of East Anglian feed barley for Spain. Loading completes Tuesday (1 August) and the cargo will arrive in northern Spain by the end of this week.

In the first of a run of oilseed rape vessels exporting from the Wash, Openfield also loaded 2,750t of oilseed rape at Boston, Lincolnshire, bound for Hamburg.