News
12.02.2010
Australian wheat stocks increased in January
The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) in its wheat stocks and use report released on Feb. 11 indicated an estimated 22.8 million tonnes of wheat was held in stock and the amount of feed grade wheat stored had increased by 985,000 tonnes at the start of January 2010.
Of the 22.8 million tonnes of wheat held in stock, roughly 17.8 million tonnes was stored by the bulk grain handlers with around 15.3 million tonnes of milling quality, ABARE said. The amount of feed grade wheat stored by the bulk grain handlers increased to roughly 2.4 million tonnes at the beginning of January 2010, according to the ABARE report.
Wheat stored by the bulk grain handlers increased by 7.7 million tonnes to 17.8 million tonnes at the start of January 2010, ABARE said. This reflects receivals of harvested wheat for the new season from the various cropping regions across Australia. Wheat stored by the bulk grain handlers increased in all states except Queensland, while the largest increases in volume were recorded in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, ABARE said.
ABARE said the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Wheat Use Survey coverage changed in December 2009. As a result, data on opening stocks held by wheat users from January 2010, domestic wheat use from December 2009 and wheat committed for domestic use from December 2009 are not directly comparable with previous data.
Based on the broader coverage of the ABS survey, 555,700 tonnes of wheat were used domestically in December 2009 and roughly 5.1 million tonnes of wheat were stored by wheat users at the start of January 2010.
Wheat committed for domestic use was roughly 1.5 million tonnes in December 2009.
Wheat exports increased in December 2009 to roughly 1.1 million tonnes compared with the 767,200 tonnes shipped in November 2009, ABARE said. Exports from all states increased in December 2009. This is likely to reflect greater wheat availability following the harvest. Wheat committed for export increased to around 1.7 million tonnes in December 2009 compared with around 1.5 million tonnes in the previous month. The volume of wheat committed for export in one month is generally greater than actual exports in the proceeding month.
World Grain
