October 11, 2007

 

Dry weather diminishes rapeseed crop in Australia

 

 

Dry weather is hurting the rapeseed crop in Australia, according to the Australian Oilseeds Federation in Sydney.

 

The Australian rapeseed harvest is estimated at 1.05 million tonnes, down nearly 15 percent from 1.23 million tonnes estimated last month, the federation said.

 

Still, this would be double the output last year of 512,000 tonnes.

 

Harvest expectations in Australia are being scaled back as the nation's worst drought on record affect grain yields.

 

Despite a 35-percent rise in prices in the past year, farmers are unlikely to benefit as analysts estimate lower yields.

 

The weather in New South Wales has been usually dry, with the last reasonable rainfall in the third week of August. This has caused harvest estimates to be adjusted further downwards. 

 

The harvest in Victoria State, estimated at 348,000 tonnes was 20-percent down from last month's estimate.

 

Rapeseed estimates for South Australia was cut 5 percent to 190,000 tonnes while that for Western Australia was relatively unchanged at 475,000 tonnes.

 

Australia is expected to export 672,000 tonnes of rapeseed, according to the government's commodity forecaster,

 

Australia is the world's third-largest rapeseed exporter, after Canada and Ukraine.