The Australian government has issued permits for the import of soyabeans and sunflower seed from South America for the first time this year, a Department of Agriculture official told Reuters.
The imports would cover supplies to make up for shortages caused by small drought-affected crops. The approval covers Australia's first import of special supplies in calendar 2007 after 57,000 tonnes of genetically modified canola was brought in from Canada last December.
This follows the decimation of Australia's 2006/07 harvest by the worst drought in 100 years, with crop production down by 60 percent. The canola crop was slashed to 513,000 tonnes from 1.4 million tonnes the year before, while the wheat crop slumped to 9.8 million tonnes from 25.1 million tonnes. No imports of grain, for either milling into flour or for animal feed, had yet taken place, the official said.
This contrasts with 2003, when the first year of a prolonged drought triggered the import of 476,000 tonnes of grain, including corn and wheat from Britain, Canada and the United States.
This was the first time Australia imported wheat in around 200 years, since colonial days.
The Agriculture Department official said that any imports of grain this year were now not likely to occur until September or October, when the size of this year's crops were known.