Drought slashes Australian slashes wheat crop forecast Reuters | Tuesday, 18 September 2007
Australia chopped its official forecast of its 2007/08 wheat crop by 31 per cent today after months of drought.
Government agency, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, cut its forecast of the wheat crop to 15.5 million tonnes, down from its previous forecast in June of 22.5 million tonnes.
"After one of the best starts to the season in a number of years in most states, dry conditions in the past two months have resulted in winter crop forecasts being revised down," said Karen Schneider, the bureau's acting executive director.
The new forecast compares with actual wheat production of 9.8 million tonnes in 2006/07, which was also seriously affected by drought.
Australia, normally the second-largest wheat exporter in the world, usually produces wheat crops of around 25 million tonnes.
The government bureau cut its forecasts of all Australian winter crops.
Forecast total winter crop production was cut by 31 per cent to 25.6 million tonnes. The forecast barley crop has been cut by 35 per cent to 5.9 million tonnes.
