Members of the AtlasFram Group who marketed combinable crops from last year’s harvest through its 2012/2013 crop marketing pools achieved higher-than-average returns, up to £20 per tonne in the case of oilseed rape compared with some competitors, the Framlingham-based farmers’ co-operative says. Members in its April-June 2013 pools got a return of £188.32/t for feed wheat and oilseed rape averaged £388.25/t.

Individual quality bonuses were worth an additional £32.09 per tonne.

“These results highlight the significant financial advantages which members achieve by using our pools, together with the benefits of our alliance with ADM Direct,” said its crop marketing manager Tim Styles.

“Global crop shortages combined with adverse weather in many parts of the world led to higher prices at the beginning of 2013, with the result that many farmers refrained from selling, anticipating that markets would rise even more. Whilst some who sold on the ‘spot’ market achieved their price objectives, far more ended up with lower-than-anticipated returns when prices fell back from a peak of around £210 per tonne to £160 per tonne. Oilseed rape prices also declined, from a peak of over £400 per tonne to below £350 per tonne.

“Overall, the 2012/2013 season perfectly illustrated the benefits of AtlasFram pools in achieving consistent, above-average returns across a range of crops, including feed wheat, Group 4 and Group 3 soft wheats, Group 2 wheats and Group 1 milling wheat, together with feed barley, malting barley, beans and oilseed rape. This has been reflected in the increased tonnages committed to our pools for 2013/2014.”

Chief executive Richard Anscombe pointed out that since AtlasFram formed a crop marketing alliance with ADM Direct in 2010 the tonnage marketed by members through our pools has increased by almost 70%.

“While UK grain production is down by more than 20% nationally in 2013, the volume committed to AtlasFram’s crop marketing department has increased by 40%. This highlights the excellent results which the crop marketing team has achieved and reflects the substantial benefits of marketing through a cooperative which is entirely owned by its members and operates solely in their best interests.”

He added: “The difference in returns achieved by marketing through AtlasFram pools compared with some of our competitors should make farmers think very carefully, as the additional revenue could make a substantial difference to their farm’s overall profitability.”