Canberra – February 8, 2021
Australia exported 2.472.624 tonnes of wheat in December, almost five times the 504.931t shipped in November, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The biggest bulk customer by far was China on 782.499t, followed by Vietnam on 278.139t and Indonesia on 256.488t.
In the boxed market, Vietnam on 49.038t, Egypt on 36.942 including 750t of durum, and China on 29.758t bought the biggest volume.
Generally, wheat exports for December were always going to be a big step up from previous months as the market had new-crop volume available to ship, but the total of last December was just a whisker behind the all-time record set in May 2017.
However, we must note that export for China in December was booked prior to the substantial decline in Australia-China relations.
Therefore, maybe this sort of volume will not be repeated any more during this season, as exporters have been nervous to sell additional business into China due to the policy risk and big demand from other less risky customers.
