PrimeAg Australian Wheat Crop Outlook Boosted by Rain

By Madelene Pearson

Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- PrimeAg Australia Ltd., the farm owner that sold A$300 million ($241 million) in shares to buy properties in Australia last year, said recent rains boosted the outlook for its wheat crop.

The company's farms in Queensland and New South Wales states got between 20 millimeters (0.8 inch) and 70 millimeters of rain in the last week, Peter Corish, executive chairman, said today in a statement.

PrimeAg sold shares in an initial public offering to acquire grain farms in Australia, the world's sixth-largest exporter of wheat, to gain from rising demand for agricultural commodities. It planted 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of mostly wheat crops in May and June.

``The current wheat crop has been progressing to expectations, and we are finalizing our planning for what is now an increasingly promising wheat harvest,'' Corish said in the statement to the Australian stock exchange. ``These rains will contribute substantially to realizing the full potential of these crops.''

PrimeAg rose 1.9 percent to A$1.65 on the exchange at the 4:10 p.m. close of trade in Sydney.

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