FAO/GIEWS - Foodcrops and Shortages  - 11/02 - AUSTRALIA (4 November)

AUSTRALIA (4 November)

Australia is set to harvest a sharply reduced winter grain crop in the coming weeks reflecting well-below normal rainfall across most of the grain belt during the 2002 winter grain season. In a special report issued in late October, ABARE forecast the 2002 wheat crop at 10.1 million tonnes, more than 3 million tonnes down from the forecast a month earlier and about 58 percent below the previous year’s near record crop. The forecast for barley output has also been reduced further since the previous report, to about 3.4 million tonnes, which would be 55 percent down from 2001. Although some rainfall arrived in early October, this was generally reported to be too patchy and light to be of any significant benefit to the crops which were already nearing maturity ahead of normal because of the dry season. As of late October the harvest had already started in some parts and it is now considered to be generally too late for any further rainfall to significantly improve crop yields. With soil moisture reserves now well depleted, the prospects for the summer crops, normally sown between November and January in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland will depend heavily on the arrival of some good planting rainfall and subsequent timely showers throughout the growing season.