LENTIL growers on Yorke Peninsula and surrounding areas now have an additional delivery option for this year’s harvest.

T-Ports has announced its Wallaroo site will accept both Nipper and Hallmark lentil varieties, including off-specification grades, providing more flexibility for local producers.

In light of this development, T-Ports invited growers and community members to tour its Wallaroo port and bunker site last Thursday, October 3.

Around 25 attendees participated in the tour, which showcased the site’s classification facilities, the new unloading equipment and the port’s storage capacity of 20,500 tonnes of grain.

Visitors also got a close look at the dock where the MV Lucky Eyre is loaded with grain for transhipment to larger vessels.

The Lucky Eyre plays a key role in T-Ports’ transhipment process; it can unload grain into deep-water vessels five nautical miles from the port and can load up to Panamax size ships.

T-Ports grower relations officer Hayley Lewis highlighted the success of the company’s transhipment model, citing improved vessel design and quayside engineering as factors that made it a costeffective alternative to long-haul land transport.

The group also toured T-Ports’ Wallaroo bunker site, which has the capacity to store up to 340,000 tonnes of grain.

As harvest approaches, Ms Lewis expressed her well wishes to growers, hoping for surprising yields this season.