Australia's wheat growers, reeling from years of drought, now face a new problem, with heavy rainfall provoking concern about the quality of the 2008/09 crop. The 2008/09 wheat harvest now underway has been disrupted by downpours in some key crop-growing regions in eastern parts of the country, including the north-west of New South Wales state and southern Queensland state.

 

"The quantity might be slightly better-than-expected, but recent rain and prospects for more in the short- to medium-term are now to the fore," said Richard Koch, chief of farmer consultancy Profarmer. The crop had been set to be Australia's best for three years after the previous two harvests were decimated by the country's worst drought in 100 years.

 

Koch said rain would see a large quantity of wheat in northern New South Wales downgraded from high quality milling wheat because of sprouting. He said there was insufficient information to tell exactly how much of the crop had been affected by rain, which delayed harvesting in recent days. Before the rain about 70 percent of the Queensland crop had been harvested and about 25 to 30 percent of the northern New South Wales crop.

 

"You could assume the rest is under a pretty serious threat of quality downgrades," said Koch. A government agency, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE), this month forecast Queensland's 2008/09 wheat harvest at 1.72 million tonnes and the New South Wales harvest at 6.59 million. Koch said about 40 percent of the New South Wales crop would come from rain affected areas in the state's north-west.

 

ABARE on November 5. forecast the total 2008/09 Australian wheat crop would be 19.9 million tonnes, well up on last season's drought-affected harvest of 13.0 million tonnes. In a weekly crop report, Profarmer said quality downgrades meant some wheat would be classified in a new grade, AH9, being essentially a higher protein Australian General Purpose grade, suitable for industrial and feed uses but of limited milling use.

 

"Export demand for the higher proteins could be an outlet, but this will take time to evaluate," the report said. It said quality issues were also affecting crops in the southern wheat belt of Western Australia. "Conditions will continue to delay harvest for a few days yet and further exacerbate problems with grain quality," the report said.

 

ABARE forecast Western Australia, the country's top grain exporting state, would harvest 7.84 million tonnes. "Western Australia's crop might be larger than forecast as frost damage to some of the crop isn't as bad as it had been thought to be," said Koch. Australian wheat is expected to be offered in a 50,000-tonnes tender issued by Iraq this week.