News in brief:
-Â Torrential rains in southeastern Australia have damaged the country’s 2023 wheat harvest, reducing production by potentially over 100,000 tonnes and downgrading 1 million tonnes of milling wheat to lower-grade feed grain.
– The heavy rainfall, following earlier production forecasts cut due to high temperatures and insufficient rainfall, poses a challenge to Australia’s wheat export ambitions.
Torrential rains across southeastern Australia have dealt a significant blow to the nation’s wheat harvest, potentially reducing production by over 100,000 tonnes. It has also downgraded up to 1 million tonnes of milling wheat to lower-grade feed grain, according to analysts.
Australia is a major global wheat exporter, and the ongoing harvest is more than halfway complete. However, baking temperatures and insufficient rainfall earlier in the year had already trimmed production forecasts to around 25 million to 28 million metric tonnes, down from last year’s 40 million tonnes. Despite the reduced output, high-quality wheat was still anticipated.
However, November brought a drastic shift in weather patterns, with over 200 millimeters of rain battering parts of New South Wales and more than 80 millimeters drenching regions of Victoria within a 24-hour period between Tuesday, November 28, and Wednesday, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM).
The BoM has maintained a severe weather warning for rain and damaging winds in parts of southeastern Australia, where the wheat harvest is at its peak. Heavy rainfall renders large machinery inoperable and exposes crops left in fields to the risk of fungal growth and sprouting.
Andrew Whitelaw of Constultants Episode 3, stated that farmers were in a limbo as harvesting a paddock is nearly impossible when the ground is soggy.
He estimated potential wheat losses between 50,000 and 130,000 tonnes, with half a million tonnes downgraded to lower quality.
These developments pose a challenge to Australia’s wheat export ambitions, potentially affecting global grain supplies and prices. Authorities and industry experts are closely monitoring the situation and assessing the full extent of the damage caused by the heavy storms.
