June 4, 2024

 

Australia's 2024/25 wheat harvest boosted by bigger planted area

Analysts at Rabobank said Australia's 2024/25 wheat harvest is expected to increase compared to last year due to an increase in planted area, but output for barley and canola will decline, Reuters reported.

 

Increased Australian wheat output would add to worldwide supply, as Russian crop losses have pushed benchmark Chicago wheat futures to 10-month highs.

 

Australia is a key global exporter of wheat, barley and canola.

 

Rabobank said 27.4 million metric tonnes of wheat will be harvested in the current 2024/25 cropping season, 5% higher compared to 2023/34. Australia will also harvest 10 million tonnes of barley, 7.2% lower from 2023/24, and 5 million tonnes of canola, down 11.4% from 2023/24.

 

Wheat and canola harvests are roughly in line with the average of the last five years, but barley around 2 million tonnes below that average.

 

Australia's eastern cropping regions have plentiful moisture as planting wraps up, but the weather is drier in the country's west, south and southeast.

 

Rabobank said it assumed a mid-to-late season recovery for dry regions as a La Nina weather event resulted in increased rainfall.

 

La Nina typically brings wetter weather to eastern Australia. Many forecasters have predicted one will emerge later in the year.

 

Wheat planted area in Australia is expected to increase by 961,000 hectares to 13.48 million hectares (33.3 million acres), with barley area increasing by 210,000 hectares to 4.33 million hectares and canola area shrinking by 450,000 hectares to 3.11 million hectares, Rabobank said.

 

It said the wheat and canola areas are 5% to 7% higher than the five-year average, while barley is around 10% lower.

 

According to Rabobank, the cropping area in Western Australia will increase despite its dry start, while Queensland's area should surge by nearly one-third to its largest on record.

 

Most of the country's dry cropping regions received rain in the last week, which analysts said could add 1 million tonnes to the wheat harvest.

 

-      Reuters