The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences latest Australian Crop Report highlights harvest figures of close to 36.3 million tonnes, almost 5.5 per cent bigger than predicted.
“This is a fantastic result and really highlights the efforts of our world-class Aussie growers,” GrainGrowers chair Brett Hosking said.
“While there are parts of the country doing it tough with a wet sorghum harvest, who are in our thoughts, it’s nice to have some good news.”
The national winter crop production is estimated to be the highest on record, driven by record production in Western Australia and near record production in NSW.
“This is a fantastic result achieved by our growers — the results in WA in particular are amazing,” Mr Hosking said.
“However, this harvest wasn’t without challenges for our growers, with a wet spring and summer causing damage and quality downgrades in many areas.
“We need to ensure that the focus is now on logistic efficiencies so that when we have excellent results like this on the farm, our growers have safe, quality roads to get their grains to receival sites and efficient port systems that see our exports off to international customers with the resulting benefits to the Australian economy.
“Likewise, a big crop requires a big export task and efforts on improving market access for Australian grains must be prioritised by the Australian Government.
“While we also celebrate the bumper harvest today, we are conscious that the current flooding in Queensland could impact sorghum crops at the point of harvest.
“Weather events like the one we’re currently experiencing don’t automatically translate into good soil moisture and another good season.
“It requires careful and agile management by growers to ensure potential is captured in future crops.”
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