This vessel carrying wheat left GrainCorp’s Geelong berth in early April. Photo: GrainCorp

AUSTRALIA exported 2.49 million tonnes (Mt) of wheat in April, up 8 per cent from 2.3Mt shipped in March, according to the latest export data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

In bulk, Australia exported 2.27Mt, with Indonesia on a stunning 720,641t being the biggest customer in April, followed by Vietnam on 203,611t and China on 161,169t.

Bulk shipments to Indonesia in April sit behind only the  bulk wheat exports to China of 779,511t despatched in December in the current marketing year.

Both figures are in front of the biggest single-destination barley number seen, 667,123t to Saudi Arabia in March.

In containerised wheat exports, 224,048t was shipped in April, with Thailand on 75,499t the biggest market by far, followed by Vietnam on 36,224t and Malaysia on 26,297t.

Australia’s durum export continued at pace through April, and in the three months to April 30, 147,985t has been shipped in bulk to Italy, and 27,500t has gone to Nigeria.

USDA currently has Australia pencilled in to export 20Mt in the current shipping year which started October 1, and ABS data indicates 13.1Mt has been shipped in the Oct-Apr period.

This averages 1.87Mt per month, despite October and November jointly shipping around 860,000t ahead of big tonnages from southern states becoming available, and the 20Mt export figure looks easily achievable if 2Mt plus is shipped per month ahead of new crop.

Table 1: Australian February, March and April 2021 containerised wheat and durum exports. Source: ABS

Table 2: Australian February, March and April 2021 bulk wheat and durum exports. Source: ABS

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