February 15, 2006

Australia expects bigger wheat harvest
 

Above average rain and mild temperatures are expected to push this year's Australia's wheat crop to the second-largest on record.

This year's harvest may yield 25 million tonnes of wheat, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics said in a statement Tuesday. The figure is 3.5 percent above the 24.1 million tonne forecast in November and the 20.4 million tonnes harvested in 2004-05.

This year's wheat crop will benefit from above-average rain in the third quarter, helping to improve crop prospects which were planted six to eight weeks later than usual due to dry weather.

It will be the second-largest Australian wheat crop since official figures started in 1962, behind 26.1 million tonnes harvested in 2003-04. Australian wheat constitutes 15 percent of the US$18 billion global wheat market.

Meanwhile, wheat prices, which have gained 17 percent in the past 12 months on the Chicago Board of Trade, may average between US$3.50 and US$3.60 a bushel this year. Wheat futures for delivery in March were pushed to an 11-month high of US$3.60 a bushel yesterday in Chicago as markets predict dry weather in wheat-growing states will reduce the US crop.

The US is the world's largest wheat exporter while Australia is ranked second together with Canada.