Dryness lifts Australian wheat quality even as output drops

Dry weather in the growing season has reduced Australia’s wheat output this year, but most of the crop is with higher protein content and supplies of lower quality grains for animal feed are limited, analysts and traders said. Premiums earned by farmers in Australia, the world’s No. 2 wheat exporter, for higher quality grains will partly offset lost income from a smaller crop, they said. Plentiful rain in 2021 and 2022 saw Australia reap record quantities of wheat, with around 40 million tons harvested last year. Hot and dry weather this growing season has cut the crop to around 25-28 million tons. “Australia’s overall crop quality is better than what we have seen in the last few years,” said a Singapore-based trader whose company sells Australian wheat to China and Southeast Asia. “With lower yields, protein scales are usually better,” he said. “Importers will get top quality milling wheat.” The dry and hot weather has brought forward the harvest, which is already more than half ...