AUSTRALIA (10 February)
The recently completed 2003 wheat harvest is officially estimated at 23.9 million tonnes, almost 37 percent up from the previous year’s severely reduced crop and above the average for the five years preceding the 2002 drought. The 2003 winter coarse grain crop was also sharply recovered from the previous year’s drought level, taking aggregate coarse grain output in 2003 to 12 million tonnes (2002: 7.6 million tonnes). Early prospects for the 2004 summer coarse grain crop (mostly sorghum) are very favourable reflecting good rains in Queensland, the main producing region. In New South Wales, the continuation of drought until recently somewhat restricted sorghum plantings again but yields prospects for the crops that were sown there are also good. The sorghum output is 2004 is officially forecast at 2.0 million tonnes, compared to just 1.5 million tonnes in 2003.