Kind growing conditions to date are boosting the likelihood of Australian durum having its second big export year in a row not only for yields.
Indeed, indicative new-crop multi-grade prices delivered to Newcastle, Australia’s major port for durum exports, are now at around $525 per tonne, up from roughly $440/t this time last year.
This is one of the very rare years where it looks like Aussie yield prospects are solid and with a good prices too.
Historically, don’t get a good line of sight on pricing at this time of year because operators waiting to see what the Canadian crop is like, but Its known it will be small because of all the news emanating from the Prairies, and from the northern United States, about the drouth.
Australian durum production is small, but its quality enables it to sell into the world’s key markets.
They include Italy, which has been the destination for most of Australia’s 350,000t or so shipped since January from the 2020 harvest which yielded around 570,000t.
Durum grown in northern NSW is some of the best in the world, and maybe it’s one of the places buyers in North Africa and Italy will look to.
However, according to the Australian Durum Company, one of Australia’s major durum exporters, while new-crop prices will be very high, volume will be down because of the smaller crop.
Thus, its expect that the new-crop exports will be lucky to be only 150,000t.
Italy and Africa are again expected to be the major export destinations for Australian durum, provided it hits its quality parameters and does not suffer a major downgrading if harvest 2021 turns out to be a wet one.
