May 12, 2009

Australian government to help wheat exporters widen international presence

Australia's Federal Government will give local wheat exporters A$180,000 (US$137,653) to help them break into international markets.

The funding will be shared by nine companies, five of which have not exported before because AWB had an export monopoly, according to Agriculture Minister Tony Burke.

A number of them are very small businesses, new players and the government wants to ensure they get a chance and a platform to work on the international stage, Burke said.

Previously, those companies were shut out because other countries and Australia would not let them have access to the markets, Burke said.

The minister said the deregulation of the wheat market has been beneficial for Australian farmers and there are much demand for Australian wheat.

But the global wheat price has seen massive fluctuations over the past one year partly because of changes in demand and many players in the wheat futures market have gone under, Burke said.

Burke refused to say if the Federal Budget will include more rail, road and port funding to remove export bottlenecks. He also played down the problems with moving this year's Western Australia harvest, saying that the harvest and export were late because of late rainfall.

Burke said another factor is because growers now can silo the wheat longer, if the price is too low.