The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) said wheat production during the 2020/21 season would total 31.17 million tonnes, up from a September estimate of 28.91 million tonnes and not far off the country’s all-time high of 31.8 million tonnes in 2016/17.
“Favourable rainfall during September and October was perfectly timed for the growth cycle,” ABARES Executive Director Steve Hatfield-Dodds said in an emailed statement.
The bumper crops, already being harvested in many parts of the country, are likely to weigh on benchmark prices, which hit a six-year high last month.
Many of the areas worst hit by the three-year drought, including in the eastern state of New South Wales (NSW), are now leading the agricultural recovery that will help the economy recover from its first recession in 30 years after large swathes of business were shut down to slow the spread of COVID-19.