“The catalyst for change was tackling our cost base” explains Camgrain finance director Steve Atherton. “We had become too expensive, relying on the committed tonnage model. We took £1.9m out of the cost base in the year to 30 June 2025 and are on track to take a further £1.7m out this year. When you consider how inflation has impacted all of us in recent times that is a solid achievement. This has meant our storage and handling charge for the year of £9.90 p/t is 55p lower than 3 years ago.”
Camgrain also changed its charging structure for haulage, removing the flat rate £9.45 p/t each member paid for haulage and replacing it with the actual cost for the haul to the member’s closest store.
“By moving from an ‘equal’ to an ‘equitable’ structure we have removed the doughnut effect which made it unattractive for farmers closest to our stores to use us”, explains Mr Atherton.
“Since making these changes, we have sold over 8,000t of storage to new and existing members. Credit to the farmer directors on our Board who have supported these changes, moving away from a charging structure that had operated for forty years”.
Bringing benefits
The cost of buying tonnage at Camgrain has also helped. Tonnage is advertised on its website at £46 p/t. Compare that to the cost of building on farm storage, associated repair bills, the quality risks of storing on farm and the opportunity cost of alternative uses for on farm storage, and the benefit case stands out.
Camgrain chief executive Simon Willis says pooling grain at Camgrain delivers some real benefits. “About a third of the 260,000t of member grain in our pools is Group 1 milling.
Our marketing partner has access to premium homes such as Hovis, Allied Mills and Whitworth. They value the high quality homogenous bulks we can supply in volume. We can also blend into the Group 1 spec. to create more volume at the higher grade. Group 1 premiums have been £57 and £70 in the last two years, although I am sure they will be lower this year”.
“Last year we also paid pool members a protein bonus above 13% (50p per 0.1% above 13%) and paid the Group 1 premium, with claims, down to 11.7% protein. If you were selling this on farm, you would expect it to be low grade milling with much lower premiums”.
“The same blending benefits apply on the barley pool as we blend high and low nitrogen of malting varieties to hit a malting specification. The extra volume sold at the higher grade goes into the feed base price, ensuring all farmer members in the pools receive a benefit”.
In November 2025 Camgrain also paid a store surplus of £1.25p/t to members for each tonne that had been sold in a Camgrain pool.
Protein sorter
Camgrain head of operations Dan Parrott says: “We are excited about a BoMill InSight Protein Sorter that will be delivered in the Spring and installed by TH White. Although there are several in other countries, this is the first one in the UK.
After seeing the kit operating in Sweden, they brought a unit to our Cambridge site to trial our own wheat and barley. An ear of wheat or barley can vary in protein content by up to 2%.
The BoMill analyses each individual kernel and using LED light can sort protein or nitrogen based on the translucency of the grain. We could extract a Group1 spec. from a low protein bulk and a malting barley spec. from a downgraded barley bulk.
This gives us an opportunity to capture more value for our members than we could have previously. The sorter can run at 15t p/h and should be commissioned in time for Harvest 2026”.
The additional premiums obtained from the protein sorter will feed into the feed base price for wheat and barley, ensuring all members who send in wheat or barley to the Camgrain pools, will benefit.