Western Australia Wheat Deteriorating Rapidly, Farmers Say

Wendy Pugh
Bloomberg

Wheat crops in Western Australia, the nation’s largest growing-state last season, may receive some rain this week amid forecasts for declining production, a farmers’ group said.

“It will certainly be the last roll of the dice for a lot of people,” Mike Norton president of the Western Australian Farmers Federation, said today by phone. “In the last fortnight to three weeks the situation has deteriorated rapidly.”

Harvesting in Western Australia will start next month and may continue to early January. Dry weather has eroded crop prospects in the state as above-normal rainfall in the nation’s east has boosted forecasts for total production.

“It’s not a total wipeout for the whole of the state but a very large chunk of that good wheat-growing country in the central to eastern wheat belt is certainly feeling the pinch,” Norton said. Output was heading for 5 million tons, he said.

Wheat for December delivery on the Chicago Board of Trade was little changed at $6.8425 a bushel at 6:43 p.m. Melbourne time, taking this year’s advance to 27 percent.

Western Australia’s wheat output may be 4.473 million metric tons, with production of all grains in the state forecast at 7.6 million tons, the Perth-based Grain Industry Association of Western Australia said in a report dated Sept. 17.

The state harvested 8.2 million tons of wheat last season, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics-Bureau of Rural Sciences.

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