World wheat production is projected to reach a record 688 million tonnes in 2008-09, marking a 13 per cent increase over the previous year on the back higher estimated produce in Australia, a UK-based trade body said.
An increased estimate for Australia, the world’s fourth largest wheat exporter, raises global wheat production estimate for 2008-09 to a record 688 million tonnes, compared with 609 million tonnes in 2007-08, International Grains Council (IGC) said in its latest grain market report.
Till last month, IGC had pegged world wheat output at 687 million tonnes, but increased the estimates following good crop in Australia, the report said.
The Australia Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (Abare) recently revised the 2008-09 wheat crop up to 21.4 million tonnes from a December 2008 forecast of 20 million tonnes, it said.
Wheat being a key driver of global food inflation, agricultural economists said that the prospect of a large increase in global wheat production this year could help to prevent further food tensions in several regions of the world.
According to IGC, weather condition in the northern hemisphere countries remain favourable for wheat crop, though there are reports of winter kill in Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the US.
Wheat crop in China has suffered severe from drought, while the southern US plains need more rain, IGC said, adding that in the major producing and exporting countries, with the exception of China, production is estimated to be good this year.
In the second advance estimate, the Indian government has reduced wheat production estimates slightly to 77.8 million tonnes due to high temperature, from 78.57 million tonnes the a year-ago period.
The report also forecast that the global wheat consumption in 2008-09 will be a record 645 million tonnes, 30 million tonnes more than the last season.
The use of wheat as a livestock feed is driving the increase, with the consumption forecast to be 25 million tonnes higher in 2008-09 from last year, it said.
The two largest consumers of wheat for livestock feed are the European Union and the Russian Federation, which together account for close to 70 per cent of total feed wheat consumption.
