Australia caps off stellar grain export year

The Australian grain marketing season runs from October to September each year, and with the release of the nation’s September export data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics late last week, the curtain is drawn on yet another successful grain shipment program.

Following a recovery in grain output from the 2024-25 harvest compared to the previous season came a rebound in the total export volume of the four major commodities — wheat, barley, sorghum and canola — although canola shipments did let the team down, lagging the previous season’s total.

Total exports, bulk and containerised, of the big four in the 2024-25 season ended up at 39.62 million tonnes (Mt), up from 35.87Mt the previous season. This is Australia’s third-highest export volume on record, behind the 47.76Mt shipped in 2022-23 and the 43.22Mt exported in 2021-22.

Unsurprisingly, China was the biggest destination with 9.42Mt, or 23.79 percent of the nation’s total grain export volume. However, this did drop from 11.81Mt or 28.97pc of the 2023-24 program. China’s imports of barley were almost unchanged at 6.03Mt, equivalent to an average of 500,000t per month. The volume of sorghum increased by just over 400,000t to 2.34Mt. Wheat was the big loser, falling 72pc, or 2.7Mt, from 3.76Mt to just 1.05Mt on the back of a significant drop in total Chinese wheat import demand.

Wheat remained Australia’s biggest grain export commodity in 2024-25, with 23.48Mt shipped to 44 destinations globally, making up 59.3pc of the national shipment task for the four primary grains. This was up from 19.72Mt in 2023-24 and is the nation’s fourth-largest wheat export program on record, behind the 31.77Mt shipped in 2022-23, 27.45Mt in 2021-22 and 23.71Mt in 2020-21.

The dramatic fall in China’s imports saw Indonesia assume the mantle as Australia’s key wheat destination with 4.47Mt, or 19pc of total exports. Second on the list was The Philippines with 3.53Mt, or 15pc of the total. Thailand came next with 1.62Mt, followed by Vietnam at 1.57Mt and South Korea at 1.46Mt. The 1.05Mt shipped to China put it eighth on the list, with 4.5pc of the total wheat program. This compares to 3.76Mt, or 19pc of the total in 2023-24, and 7.59Mt or 23.9pc in the record export year of 2022-23.

National barley exports, malting and feed, were close to record pace in the first half but died away late in the season to finish on 8.13Mt sold to 27 individual destinations globally. This is the second-largest barley shipping program on record, behind the massive 2016-17 season achievement of 9.16Mt, when China took over 6.3Mt.

Beijing’s appetite for Australian barley may have waned early this decade due to political reasons, but it has bounced back to over 6Mt in each of the past two seasons, after import restrictions were dropped in July 2023. Shipments to China accounted for 73.1pc of the total barley program last season, down from 77.5Mt in 2023-24. Japan maintained its second-place ranking with 7.2pc of the barley shipments, but its proportion dropped from 11pc a season earlier. Saudi Arabia came in third on the list on 4.8pc, followed by Mexico on 3.2pc.

Shipments of canola fell by almost 800,000t from a record 6.19Mt in 2023-24 to 5.4Mt last season. However, it was still the fourth-largest on record, with 2022-23 and 2021-22 also being bumper export seasons. The European Union maintained its status as the primary destination for Australian seed, taking 3.58Mt, or two-thirds of the shipments. The United Arab Emirates with purchases of 621,000t, Pakistan with 468,000t, Japan with 303,000t and Bangladesh with 192,000t were the other notable buyers.

Sorghum sales remained strong throughout the 2024-25 season, with shipments topping 2.5Mt for only the second time in history. This was up from 2.06Mt a season earlier and down from 2.75Mt in 2022-23. All the eggs are in one basket here, with China accounting for 93.7pc of the nation’s sorghum sales in 2024-25. The only other destinations of note were Kenya with 89,000t and Taiwan with 45,000t. Queensland ports shipped 69.7pc of the sales, and New South Wales ports accounted for the balance.

After one of the biggest harvests on record in 2024, Western Australia’s five export terminals shipped a total of 19.53Mt of wheat, barley and canola in 2024-25. This represented 49.3pc of the national total and was up significantly from the 15.59Mt shipped in the previous corresponding period. This was made up of 10.76Mt of wheat, 5.48Mt of barley, and 2.79Mt of canola, constituting 48.2pc, 67.5pc and 53.5pc of each commodity’s national export program respectively. The state’s ports also shipped more than 820,000t pulses and oats last season.

New South Wales was the second-largest export state in 2024-25 with 8.14Mt, up from 3.68Mt in 2023-24, and 20.5pc of the national program. Exports out of Queensland also increased season on season from 1.77Mt to 2.67Mt, or 6.7pc of the total. A poor harvest in south-eastern Australia saw the shipping volume in South Australia fall significantly from 7Mt to 3.5Mt, as was the case for Victoria, declining from 7.87Mt to 5.78Mt.

There were 20 export terminals that loaded bulk shipments of Australian grain in the 2023-24 season, with Kwinana in WA being the biggest. It shouldered 20.6pc of the national grain export task, or 7.82Mt, up from 5.85Mt a year earlier. The second-biggest port was Albany in WA, with 4.03Mt or 10.6pc of the total, up from 3.12Mt a season earlier. The third and fourth placegetters were in New South Wales, with Port Kembla on 8.8pc edging out Newcastle on 8.4pc of the country’s export feat in 2024-25.

Outside the big four, exports of chickpeas jumped dramatically from 500,000t in 2023-24 to 2.09Mt last season. India with 1.41Mt, and Pakistan with 323,000t accounted for 83pc of the demand. Lentil exports went the other way, dropping from 1.5Mt to 1.05Mt, with India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka accounting for almost 900,000t, or 85.2pc of total shipments. Strong demand for oats led to a rise in exports of 223,000t to 521,000t, with China accounting for 85.7pc of the sales.

Tags: Australia, shipments, China, output, export, The Philippines, grain, sorghum, barley, canola, South Korea, Vietnam, wheat, Thailand, imports