SYDNEY (Reuters) — Heavy rain across Western Australia has provided near ideal wheat growing conditions.
It boosts the outlook for the world’s third-largest exporter after plantings on the east coast were helped by rain last month.
Much of Western Australia, the country’s largest wheat producing state, was expected to receive up to 50 millimetres of rain last week, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said, coming after pockets of the western wheat belt received record April rain.
Analysts said the rain may see Western Australian farmers advance wheat seeding, while the crop already in the ground will be boosted.
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“It is a fantastic start to the season in Western Australia,” said Luke Mathews, a commodities strategist with Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
“Moisture is the single biggest limiting factor for Australian agriculture, and additional rain at this time of the year, even if it does hold up planting momentarily, the rain will be welcomed by producers.”
However, Australia’s production remains at risk from a return of an El Nino, despite the favourable growing weather.
The weather bureau has pegged the chance of an El Nino at 70 percent and said it could arrive as early as July. The weather event can bring warmer, drier weather to Australia’s east coast.
The government commodities forecaster pegged Australian wheat production in March at 24.795 million tonnes, down from the 27.795 million tonnes produced in the previous year.
Buoyed by recent bumper production years, Australian farmers are set to devote a three-year high of 3.3 million acres of land to growing wheat, the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Sciences estimated in March.
