WA Market Update – 30/08/2019

There are three cold fronts expected to pass through WA from today (Thursday) and into the weekend, hopefully dumping 10 – 20mm across some of the agricultural regions. This rain does come after a warm spell in the middle of the week so it should prevent any further yield declines for the time being. Northern cropping areas are really starting to struggle, while any rain received in southern regions will maintain the potential for above average yields.

Due to the late break and lack of subsoil moisture to kick the season off, crops remain heavily reliant on regular rainfall and cool temperatures for the next month or so. For this reason, there is potential for the final grain production figure in WA to swing dramatically. A lot of moisture deprived crops in the north are struggling and without rain and cool temperatures other regions will begin to follow. The potential for downside is very much in play and yields will slide if we get a period of warm, dry weather.

Markets remain pretty thin and new crop selling has been pretty scarce. Barley however seems to be a better story than wheat at the moment and growers have been a little happier to slowly continue their sales program over the past fortnight. Prices haven’t fluctuated dramatically over the last two weeks’, but wheat is generally a little higher while barley is off slightly. APW1 in Kwinana is sitting at $316/MT, H2 is $324/MT and ASW is sitting below $300/MT at $294/MT FIS. Malt barley is still hovering around $300/MT and feed is currently being bid at $270 FIS. 2020/21 wheat has come off $7/MT over the last 14 days.