Private forecaster Australian Wheat Forecasters Pty Ltd (AWF) is forecasting a big increase in Australia's summer sorghum crop in 2004 after the near completion of bumper winter wheat and barley harvests.
The sorghum forecast finalises the outlook for a major rebound by Australian grains from crop devastation in 2002/03 caused by Australia's worst drought in a century.
AWF said on Tuesday it expected the 2004 calendar year sorghum crop to rebound to 2.2 million tonnes from 1.5 million tonnes in 2003.
This follows a doubling in Australian wheat production in the April/March 2003/04 year, with the grain now in the bin from a completed harvest.
AWF's final estimates of Australia's wheat crop is just a shade under 24 million tonnes at 23.9 million tonnes, up from just 10.0 million tonnes the year before.
This would make it Australia's third largest wheat crop after a record 24.8 million tonne in 1999/00 and 24.3 million tonnes in 2001/02.
"Quality has been excellent and the crop will be readily saleable through 2004," AWF said in its final forecast.
Australia's wheat harvest is now virtually complete apart from in scattered areas such as western Victoria, AWF's managing director Brian Bailey said on Tuesday.
AWF's final estimate for Australia's barley harvest, also effectively complete, is for 7.27 million tonnes for the April/March year, double the 3.18 million tonnes of the previous year. Wheat and barley are Australia's premier winter grains, with the 2003/04 crops worth an estimated A$3.3 billion and A$900 million respectively on export markets.
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