AUSTRALIA’S bulk and containerised wheat exports in September slipped to 839,057 tonnes, down marginally from 846,656t shipped in August, according to the latest export data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

In bulk sales, Iraq has emerged as the biggest market for September, taking 308,606t, more than double the next biggest market, Korea, which bought 150,045t, with Japan in third position with 77,197t.

This compares with September last year, when Indonesia on 249,819t, Vietnam on 156,845t, and China on 97,745t were Australia’s three biggest bulk wheat markets.

Last year, The Philippines bought 53,514t of Australian bulk wheat in August, and 53,396t in September, but has taken no bulk Australian wheat in the corresponding months this year.

This is thought to reflect increased competition new-crop Black Sea crop wheat, and may also reflect the drought-driven demand in eastern Australia, which has absorbed surplus low and mid-protein wheat from Western Australia and South Australia.

In the containerised market, Myanmar was the major buyer for September, taking 27,168t, well ahead of Malaysia with 9275t.

Table 1: ABS data showing Australia’s bulk wheat exports in July, August and September 2018.

Table 2: ABS data showing Australia’s containerised wheat exports in July, August and September 2018.