Australia Anticipating ‘Significant’ Wheat Exports
By Madelene Pearson / www.bloomberg.com
Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Australia, the world’s fourth- largest wheat exporter, will have “significant” quantities of the grain available for export, Agriculture Minister Tony Burke said in an interview.
“At the moment we are tracking fairly well still, some parts of the country are doing exceptionally well, some have hit some periods of difficulty,” Burke said by phone from Canberra. “You’d be looking at significant availability for the export market if we are able to keep this together.”
Increased supply from Australia may weigh further on prices that slumped to a two-year low in anticipation of the second- biggest global harvest on record. Farmers in Australia, which planted the fourth-biggest area to winter crops in 14 years, may produce the biggest crop in four years.
“The momentum for prices unfortunately is still largely down,” Wayne Gordon, a senior analyst at Rabobank Groep NV, said by phone from Sydney. A bigger Australian crop “can only be bearish for prices,” he said.
Wheat futures for December delivery rose 0.2 percent to $4.5725 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade in after-hours electronic trading at 10:37 a.m. in Sydney. Prices yesterday dropped to the lowest since April 2007. Wheat reached a record $13.495 a bushel on Feb. 27, 2008.
Global Supply
Australia’s wheat shipments are forecast to account for about 13 percent of world trade and the nation has previously rivaled Canada as the No. 2 exporter before years of drought cut output. Greater supplies from Australia come as prices have plunged 66 percent from last year’s record.
Global wheat exports are forecast at 123.4 million metric tons in 2010, according to the August forecast from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Australia is tipped to ship 15.5 million tons, up from 14 million tons. The world’s largest shipper of wheat.
Australia may produce about 22 million tons this harvest, according to a June forecast from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, It’s scheduled to give its latest crop estimate next week.
Western Australia, the nation’s biggest wheat-growing state and exporter, is “on-track” for its second-largest wheat crop on record, Burke said. Crops in West and South Australia are looking “very strong,” he said.
Southern Queensland and northern New South Wales crops have just had “significant rain,” easing concern after a long period of dry weather for those regions, he said. Still, crops in south and central New South Wales need rain urgently, he said.
“Overall the grain crop is still looking quite strong,” Burke said.
