Australian Crop Forecasts Dropping

DONALD - Jul 10/02 - STAT -- Pessimism about the size of this year's Australian wheat harvest is growing, with another organization asserting production is unlikely to exceed 18.3 million metric tons (MT), down 2.15 million MT from recent government forecasts.

The latest numbers come from an Australian agricultural cooperative called Net-Co. Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Chief Executive Mike Chaseling says with sowing yet to take place in many key growing areas, production will suffer.

"The crop," he said, "is certainly suffering, we think that sowings have not gone ahead at all at this stage in some of the western areas of NSW and the northwest. Obviously Queensland is obviously significantly below an average crop.

"Significant parts of Victoria are also undecided at this point in time. Western Australia is just shy of about seven million MT, but we certainly need significant precipitation to even achieve that number this year. We certainly seemed destined for a below average year."

The subscriber version of the article is available by Clicking here