Extra Help for Wheat Growers

Wheat growers will soon have access to important market information to help maximise their returns under the reformed wheat export marketing system.

10/11/08 Wheat growers will soon have access to important market information to help maximise their returns under the reformed wheat export marketing system.

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Tony Burke said a Government-funded project to produce monthly industry reports and help improve the quality of market information available to growers was now underway.

The project is part of a $9.3 million, three-year Rudd Government initiative to help industry in its transition to a competitive export wheat marketing system. It delivers on a recommendation by the independent Industry Expert Group which found that industry needed access to key information if the wheat market is to operate efficiently.

“This was a major economic reform and the Rudd Government will continue working with industry to help growers take advantage of the new opportunities,” Mr Burke said.

“Nineteen companies are now accredited to export wheat in bulk and more than 341,000 tonnes of wheat have been exported under the new system to eight countries.”

Stakeholders from farming organisations, flour millers, stock-feed manufacturers, exporters, grain traders, and intensive livestock industries were consulted during the development of the project.

The monthly industry reports for growers will be produced by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE).

ABARE will draw on new surveys introduced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to collect data on wheat usage, export sales contracts and grain handlers’ stocks as well as its own quarterly production forecasts.