October 22, 2008

  
World wheat production rebounds by 11 percent

World Trade Outlook Chairman Gerry Bange said that what they are looking at now is an increase of world wheat production to the tune of nearly 70 million tonnes, which is an extremely sharp increase; over 11 percent increase in one year.

The Russian Agricultural Ministry has reported that wheat harvest and exports were significantly higher at this time than they were in 2007.

The Ukraine also reported excellent grain harvests of 70 percent more than a year ago.

While Rabobank cut the estimate of Australia's wheat harvest by a half million tonnes, their forecast of 20.5 million is still a significant increase over the past two year's harvests that were hit by severe drought.

A report out of Europe shows a 25 percent increase in forecasted wheat production over last year.

US wheat production has also increased by 21 percent over last year.

Gerry Bange says the board has cut US average wheat prices for next season by US$0.25 to US$7 a bushel which is still more than a half dollar above what growers received this past season.