February 26, 2007

Australia's AWB holds estimated returns on wheat exports

Australian wheat exporter AWB Ltd. Monday again held steady its estimate of gross returns from pooled export sales of new crop wheat.

As a result, benchmark Australian Premium White grade of 10.5 percent protein is estimated to return a gross A$242/tonne (about US$191.73/tonne), FOB, unchanged from a review Dec 11.

Other new crop grades were also left unchanged with Australian Prime Hard grade of 13 percent protein estimated at A$257.50/tonne, Australian Premium Durum grade of 13 percent protein at A$261.00/tonne and Feed grade at A$205.00/tonne.

David Johnston, acting general manager of AWB's collective export sales pool, said farmers had delivered 3.1 million tonnes of wheat to the pool from a drought-affected harvest that ended in December, a result he described in a statement as excellent.

AWB pools returns from its export wheat sales and deducts costs before paying producers.