Australian Grain Growing Areas Forecast to Remain Dry This Week

By Madelene Pearson

Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Grain growing regions in Australia, forecast to be the world's third-largest wheat exporter, are likely to remain dry this week, the National Climate Center said.

Rainfall will be confined to southern coastal regions with falls of 5 millimeters (0.2 inch) or less forecast for parts of South Australia state and some cropping regions of southern Victoria, Shoni Dawkins, a climatologist with the center said. It will be dry across the rest of the country, he said.

``The weather across the whole continent is going to be dominated by a high-pressure system,'' Dawkins said by phone from Melbourne. ``It's going to be fine and dry this week for much of Australia.''

Australian farmers will start harvesting around November, making rainfall in coming months critical to bolster yields. National wheat output may be more than 25 million metric tons, exceeding a government forecast, after rain in July improved crop prospects, ProFarmer Australia said last week.

Southern and coastal areas of Western Australia got as much as 5 millimeters of rain last week, Dawkins said. Victoria state had 15-25 millimeters in cropping regions, with similar falls in South Australia state, he said. New South Wales had as much as 10 millimeters, while there was isolated rainfall of 1-5 millimeters in Queensland state, Dawkins said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Madelene Pearson in Melbourne on mpearson1@bloomberg.net