Australia wheat output to hit 42 million tons this year

CANBERRA (Commodity Online) : Australia Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) on Tuesday slightly lower country’s wheat forecasts but keeping record production and bumper exports in sight.
In a statement, ABARE said country’s output will hit 42 million tons this year, a 19 per cent increase on the drought-affected previous year.
However, the officials at crop bureau Abares cut their overall crop forecast by 500,000 tonnes to 26.3m tonnes, still sufficient to beat the 26.1m-tonne record set seven seasons ago.
This in part reflected a 1.1m-tonne upgrade to 4.7m tonnes in the crop in Western Australia, usually the country's top producing state, but which suffered its driest ever year in 2010.
Furthermore, Abares kept its estimate for Australia's exports in 2010-11 at 16.0m tonnes, despite the strain that an east-focused, and late, harvest poses to grain logistics focused on the country's east coast.
In New South Wales, the top producing sate this year, rains "started to cause significant problems from November, including substantial harvest delays, an increase in the prevalence of fungal disease and significant damage to grain quality".
The rain has also given the summer plantings a good soaking and ABARES is now predicting record cotton and rice production this year. The estimate were significantly higher than those of other analysts.
Rabobank last week pegged the harvest at 24.0m tonnes, adding that missed shipping opportunities, after heavy rains delayed the east coast harvest, and in some areas closed rail lines too, meant exports "will be constrained to just 14m-14.5m tonnes".
The US Department of Agriculture estimated output at 25.0m tonnes and shipments at 13.5m tonnes.

(Source: http://www.commodityonline.com/news/Australia-wheat-output-to-hit-42-million-tons-this-year-36478-3-1.html)