CANBERRA: Australia’s wheat crop could be in for a dramatic upgrade, potentially to a record high, thanks to wet weather which has put “stellar yields” in prospect – if stoking the quality worries already live in the world market. Forecaster Lanworth pegged the Australian wheat harvest this year at 24.3m-29.3m tonnes, with a central estimate of 27.2m tonnes, flagging “overall beneficial conditions during the growing season”.
Indeed, satellite imagery shows “record vegetation density… across nearly all major growing regions”, the analysis group said, adding that Australia was “on track for stellar yields” in wheat.
The group’s harvest forecast is well above the 25.4m tonnes expected by Abares, the official Australian commodities bureau, and would represent a sharp improvement on last year’s harvest of 24.2m tonnes. The estimate is also above the 26.5m tonnes expected by the US Department of Agriculture, and a little ahead too of the 27.0m-tonne forecast last week by the International Grains Council, upgraded by 1.0m tonnes.
