Wheat is outloaded at Thallon in south-west Queensland bound for export via the Port of Brisbane. Photo: GrainCorp

AUSTRALIA exported 1,954,516 tonnes of wheat in July, down 29 per cent from the 2,765,805t shipped in June, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Bulk shipments, at 1,667,021t in July, were down 37pc from 2,648,924t in June. The biggest July destinations were Indonesia, 656,623t, China, 255,401t and The Philippines on 136,402t.

Containerised exports at 287,495t rose a startling 146pc in July from the 116,881t shipped in June, with Thailand on 77,373t, Vietnam on 59,778t and Malaysia on 53,177t the biggest markets for the month.

The jump in containerised exports over July is thought to reflect the attractive pricing of high-protein wheat out of Australia at a time when the fierce summer had impacted comparable Canadian and northern US grades.

Australia’s July 2021 wheat-export figure is more than four times the 436,507t shipped in July 2020, and the volume increase demonstrates the ability of eastern states to keep shipping into the back months of the export year following the breaking of the drought.

Exporters are running down their stocks as another big crop is coming in all states of Australia, and global markets look to supplement shipments from Northern Hemisphere exporters at a time when Australian wheat normally struggles to compete on price.

Table 1: Australia’s containerised wheat exports for May, June and July 2021. Source: ABS

Table 2: Australia’s bulk wheat exports for May, June and July 2021. Source: ABS