This is heart breaking for many farmers who are harvesting a bumper crop follow a number of dismal drought affected wheat crops.
TWO weeks of rain over the northern NSW grain belt have wiped hundreds of millions of dollars off the value of the wheat crop.
“Northern NSW was looking at one of the better crops it has had in a long time,” said AWB general manager of Australian commodities, Stuart Richardson.
“Then, all of a sudden, you have downgrading. It is the worst possible scenario, and it is not just NSW. There are areas of Western Australia that have copped it.
The rain has mostly affected premium Durum wheat which is used to make pasta. It’s good news though for those farmers with Durum wheat that is not downgraded due to rain:
Typically, Australia exports durum wheat, but the looming shortfall this week pushed the price up close to import parity.
“We have growers who were looking at prices only three or four weeks ago of around $380 (per tonne) delivered Newcastle, yesterday being paid $520 delivered Newcastle,” Mr Martin said.
“Currently durum is commanding a premium above bread wheat of about $200 a tonne; last year it was $300 a tonne, and the year before it was only running at about $30 above bread wheat.
Sssshhheeessshh, who’d be a farmer, you want it to rain sometimes, then not others, then you have to know which variety to grow, where and how to market it, supply & demand dynamics etc.etc.etc – and at the end of the day they have zero control over the one thing that makes their enterprise a success or a failure – The Weather.
That’s a tough Gig.
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