East Australia harvest slows; summer crops ripen

A harvest of winter grains, including wheat, in southeast Australia is nearly complete - except in southern Victoria state - just as summer sorghum crops ripen further north, David Ginns, corporate affairs manager at storage provider GrainCorp Ltd. (GNC.AU) said Monday (January 5).

"Understandably, it's slowing down because we're really down to Victoria now," where the harvest of winter grains appears to be exceeding what had been modest yield expectations, he said by telephone.

GrainCorp's operations in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales are only about two weeks away from "getting stuck full bore" into the annual harvest of summer sorghum, some of which has already been delivered into the company's system, he said.

While the area planted for the new sorghum crops will contract from last year, yields will likely be above average, he said.

National sorghum production from the crop to be harvested in the first half of 2009 will reach 2.1 million tonnes, down from 3.1 million tonnes for 2008, the government's Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics forecast a month ago.

With some of this grain almost certain to flow into GrainCorp's storage system, along with production from other summer crops, such as cottonseed, the company will certainly reach at least the bottom level of its forecast annual intake range of 7.5 million to 10.0 million tonnes for all crops, he said.

GrainCorp doesn't own the wheat and other grains it receives. It stores, handles and out-turns the products for a fee.