June 24, 2004

Australia's GrainCorp Eyes 24-25 Million MT New Wheat Crop

Eastern Australian logistics, milling and marketing concern GrainCorp Ltd. Thursday forecast new crop wheat production in a range of 24 million to 25 million metric tons.

"Crop conditions have been good," GrainCorp observed in a weekly column in The Land newspaper.

The crop forecast is up from other recent estimates, including wheat marketer AWB Ltd.'s projected range of 21 million to 24 million tons.

The government's Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics reiterated Monday its production forecast of 23.25 million tons for this crop year ending March 31, 2005.

Actual production last crop year was a record 24.92 million tons.

Australia is a major global supplier of wheat.

If GrainCorp's estimate is achieved, the exportable surplus of wheat from the new crop would be in a range 18 million to 19 million tons.

GrainCorp dominates grain logistics and export operations in eastern Australia.

It plans to issue a forecast for total new crop intake into its system late July.