January 4, 2012

 

Indonesia becomes biggest buyer of Australian wheat

 

 

The annual report of Wheat Exports Australia's (WEA) to grain growers lists the top 10 export markets for Australian wheat sold in bulk and the tonnages each country bought, with Indonesia being at the number one spot.

 

But growers should not necessarily think the countries listed are in order of market importance because the data excludes bagged and containerised wheat sales.

 

The WEA has no oversight of bagged and containerised wheat sales, so does not include them when identifying the important markets. AWB used to include all data before it lost the single desk.

 

For the 2009-10 wheat marketing year, WEA said the top five bulk markets were Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Yemen and Vietnam.

 

But when total sales were taken into account, the top five buyers of Australian wheat were Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and China.

 

It was a similar situation for the 2008-09 season.

 

The WEA report shows Indonesia as the main bulk market, followed by Iran, Iraq, Sudan and South Korea.

 

But Australian Bureau of Statistics data for that season show Indonesia as top buyer, with Iran, Vietnam, Iraq and Malaysia following.

 

Unfortunately, the data collected by the ABS is no longer meaningfully collated by a grains organisation.

 

Argentina has risen up the ranks of the largest biodiesel producers in the world and has ended 2011 behind Germany and the US.

 

Only four years ago, Argentina was ranked eighth in the world in biodiesel production.

 

It produced about 2.4 million tonnes of biodiesel last year, close behind the US 2.5 million tonnes. The US refined about a million tonnes in 2010.

 

Argentina produces most of its biodiesel from soy.

 

GRAINCORP'S 2010-11 Australian Premium White wheat pool for grain delivered into the Geelong port zone returned about US$40 a tonne more than average cash prices for the year.

 

The company recently finalised pools for last harvest's grain, paying growers US$31 million.

 

GrainCorp said the final pool return was US$308.20 a tonne for APW1 wheat, while the average cash price from December 1, 2010, to December 16, last year, was US$268.85 a tonne.

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