Australian Pulse Crop Down 20%

VANCOUVER - Feb 10/15 - SNS -- Australia's 2014 pulse harvest ended up bigger than initially expected, with the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) boosting estimated production of the country's five major pulses 13% to 1.87 million metric tons (MT).

Despite the improvement, production of chickpeas, fababeans, fields peas, lentils and lupins is down 20% from last year's 2.39 million MT harvest.

This is consistent with other winter crops. ABARES reckons output of all winter crops fell 13% from last year to 38.2 million MT. Yields were hurt by unfavorable seasonal conditions which pushed average yields for all crops below the recent 10-year average in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Yields were above the long term average in South Australia and Western Australia, but down from last year.

In Western Australia, winter crop production is estimated to have fallen to 14.6 million MT in 2014-15, down 16% from a record 17.2 million MT in the previous year. In South Australia, winter crop production is estimated to have fallen by 12% to 7.6 million MT and Victorian winter crop production is estimated to have fallen by 22% to 5.3 million MT.

In New South Wales, a dry finish to the growing season had an adverse effect on yields. As a result, winter crop production is estimated to have fallen by 4% to 9.2 million MT. Winter crop production in Queensland is estimated to have fallen by 14% to 1.4 million MT.