Bumper wheat crop helps Australia look beyond China | Agriculture News

Heavy rain has boosted Australian wheat production, allowing it to sell the crop as far away as North Africa and Europe.

From mounting tensions with China to trade disruptions caused by the pandemic, agriculture in Australia has been hit by a few curved balls in recent months. Still, for wheat farmers, the outlook has seldom been better.

Australia is one of the world’s biggest exporters of the ubiquitous staple used in everything from bread to cakes and pasta, and this year the country’s on track for its second-largest crop ever — more than 30 million tons — after widespread rains turbocharged production.

Increased export supplies from Australia and weather woes in other parts of the world mean that the top buyers in the region — including Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam — are likely to pivot back to Australia, according to Andrew Whitelaw, an agricultural analyst at…