Wheat Output in Australia May Reach 4-Year High, Bureau Says

By Madelene Pearson

June 16 (Bloomberg) -- Wheat production in Australia, the world’s fourth-largest exporter, may reach the highest in four years, according to data from the nation’s commodity forecaster.

Output may be about 22 million metric tons in 2009-2010, the Canberra-based Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics said today in a statement. That compares with its March forecast of 22.1 million tons and last year’s crop of 21.4 million tons.

Wheat in Chicago has dropped 9.7 percent this month as favorable weather helped improve prospects for the winter crop in the U.S., the world’s biggest exporter. Recent rainfall across growing regions in Australia has provided optimism for planting, the bureau said.

“Rainfall in late May and early June was timely for those winter crops that had already been sown and provided an opportunity for remaining planting intentions to be realized,” Phillip Glyde, the bureau’s executive director, said in the statement. “The amount and timing of rainfall during the rest of the season will critically affect the extent to which these production outcomes are achieved.”

Wheat futures for July delivery rose 0.6 percent to $5.7850 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade in after-hours electronic trading at 9:37 a.m. Sydney time.

Australian grain growers sow crops including wheat, barley and canola from about April to June for harvest starting from November.

The area sown to wheat is forecast at 13.5 million hectares, the second year more than 13 million hectares have been sown, the bureau said. Wheat output of 22 million tons would be the highest since the 25.2 million ton harvest in 2005-2006, according to bureau data.

Barley production may rise 13 percent to 7.7 million tons, while canola output is forecast to drop 9 percent to 1.7 million tons, the bureau said.

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