Getreide Cockpit, 06.12.2019

With figures from the Australian Bureau of Agriculture, and Resource Economics and Sciences ABARES, it's official, the Australian grain harvest is shipwrecked for the third year in a row, and analysts say this year marks the smallest grain harvest in 12 years. In addition to the below-average rainfall in many parts of the continent, above-average temperatures, which in addition to the yield also affected the quality, were responsible for this. The largest crop losses are expected in Western Australia and southern New South Wales. There, the current harvest forecast is now 13% below the initial estimates in the fall. In contrast, yields in most southern growing regions in South Australia and Victoria are expected to be above average on average. In its current crop report, ABARES forecasts a winter crop harvest of 29.4 million t. This is around 27% less than the 10-year average and continues the trend of declining crop production for the third time in a row. The Australian wheat harvest alone is down 8% on the already small prior-year result and is set to narrowly miss the 16 million t mark.This would be the smallest harvest since 2007. The production of barley will exceed the very weak previous year's result by 4% according to ABARE with 8.7 million tons. However, there were also massive corrections here, with 9.5 million tonnes expected in September.