Wheat deliveries roll into GrainCorp’s Talwood site in October to help fill cargoes loading in Brisbane. Photo: Dave Beare

AUSTRALIA exported 1,478,241 tonnes of wheat in October, a rise of 16 per cent from the 1,277,616t shipped in September, according to the latest export data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

In bulk, China on 242,820t, Vietnam on 224,814t and Indonesia on 185,011t were the biggest markets for October-shipped wheat.

Vietnam on 73,147t, Thailand on 47,801t and Taiwan on 33,626t were the three biggest customers.

Australian wheat exports to Middle East, African and South Asian customers has dipped in October to reflect the continued availability of new-crop Black Sea and European shipments.

However, Australian wheat has remained extremely competitive.

Brisbane and Geraldton are thought to have exported some new-crop wheat in October, but the greatest tonnage shipped in bulk by far in the month came from Port Kembla.

As one of New South Wales’ two bulk ports, it receives grain via rail from the central west and south-west of NSW, where a bumper crop was harvested last year.

The region has had the biggest 2020-21 carry-out of any in Australia, and Kembla’s two export terminals shipped a combined 354,846t of wheat in October.

This is well ahead of the three other busiest bulk-wheat ports for October, Fremantle on 193,143t, Brisbane on 181,675t and Geelong on 180,753t.

Table 1: Australian bulk wheat exports for August, September and October 2021. Source: ABS

Table 2: Australian containerised wheat exports for August, September and October 2021. Source: ABS