Grain harvest to be 13mt

Western Australia’s grain harvest for this season will be around 13 million tonnes, as a result of lower than forecast yields in some areas.

The final figure will be released in January, but will be down on the 13.45mt originally estimated.

To date, 12.7mt have been received, making it a strong year despite being slightly below expectations.

In good news for the sector, prices have strengthened this week after concerns over Russian exports.

CBH Group general manager of marketing and trading, Jason Craig, said Australian Premium White wheat prices had increased by $5-$7 per tonne due to market uncertainty.

“All in all out of WA quality has been better than anticipated, which has been good for the market,” he said.

“Feed barley values continued to strengthen over the past week, with values increasing $12-$15 per tonne in WA.

“This is because the trade has been looking to cover their remaining early positions combined with still good demand from Asian destinations, in particular China.”

General manager of operations David Capper said there had been a range of unforseen weather events.

“It has been a very stop start harvest and there will be some grain coming in slowly from here,” he said.

The Geraldton harvest region performed poorly, CBH said, about 300,000 tonnes below estimates at 1.9mt.

The Albany region, which had experienced a series of poor weather events, has had a large influx of grain in the last week, putting pressure on storage facilities.