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Rain brings a grain of hope
19 Aug 2003
Soaring world wheat prices and the best rains in parts of NSW for the season last week are poised to lift rural Australia from the drought. AWB lifted its estimates for the current crop yesterday by $10 to $12 a tonne. This takes the pool estimate return for the benchmark APW grade to $218 a tonne, up $21 or 10 per cent over the past two months, or an extra $400 million-plus for the forecast wheat crop of 20 to 22 million tonnes.
Rainfalls over the past week of up to 50mm in the central west of NSW and between 10mm and 40mm further south have relieved the late start to the cropping season in the nation's second-biggest grain-producing state.
In Western Australia, Australia's major grain-producing state, farmers are growing more confident of a bumper crop after the best start to a season for many years. A spokesman for CBH, the state's dominant grain handler, said it's expecting a huge grain crop of around 12 million tonnes, just under the record 12.1 million tonnes harvested three years ago. About two-thirds of the crop will be wheat.
Australian Financial Review, 19/8/03.
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