Australia: Export, consumer, grazier demand lifts values

Values have lifted this week as sorghum exports kick into gear, and bids to growers climb lift to entice volume out of on-farm storages and depots.

In the southern market, conditions remain dry overall, and growers are being cautious to hold enough grain to feed their own livestock, or are looking to meet demand from domestic consumers if the break in the season does not show up in April or May.

In the north, bulk and containerised sorghum is making its way at pace to Brisbane after Tropical Cyclone Alfred delayed  the loading of the first new-crop cargoes.

Table 1: Indicative prices in Australian dollars per tonne.

Sorghum demand from China has a string of trucks rolling into Brisbane from the Darling and Western Downs of southern Queensland, and the north-west plains of New South Wales.

Buyers remain willing sellers at current levels for the boxed and bulk trade.

“The majority is going straight to port, with little engagement on the Downs,” Goondiwindi-based Knight Commodities broker Gerard Doherty said.

Mr Doherty said road freight has rolled straight out of chickpeas and into sorghum, and was working well, with high quality and big yields making for easy accumulation and execution.

On wheat, Mr Doherty said consumers were buying SFW wheat at a steady $350/t, while the barley market has rallied

“There’s still a lot of white grain around, and buyers have been hand to mouth.”

Rain in northern NSW and southern and Central Qld has been patchy within and between farms, and Mr Doherty said what does or does not fall in coming weeks will dictate the selling pattern.

“If we don’t get a planting opportunity in the next month, growers will hold on; if we do get the break, they’ll sell.”

Mr Doherty said both depot and on-farm markets have rallied in the past week as feedmills look to extend their coverage for the coming quarter.

“There’s a lot more consumer interest for April than there was.”

He said rain has been “horrendously patchy”, with some pockets getting 80-100mm out of ex-TC Alfred, and others getting 5mm.

“Another 30-40mm would get everyone going on winter crop.”

Trade sources say large parcels of barley are getting hard to find on the Downs and in the border region, but plenty remains unsold in central and north-central NSW.

Grazing oats are being planted, or are up and away, in parts of NSW and Qld, and CQ wheat planting is likely to start late next month in those regions that have had sufficient rain.

As canola exports out of Victoria and NSW slow on a rundown of stocks, wheat exports are picking up and generating bulk and containerised demand.

Coupled with consumer demand, this has seen the southern wheat and barley markets kick this and last week.

“There’s certainly exporter buying… for containers and bulk vessels, and the consumer needs wheat,” Wilken Grain trader Andrew Kelso said.

“It’s dry, and people are chasing barley to feed livestock.”

Up-country feedmills are bidding up to keep the tonnes they need away from export.

“They’re hoping to get tonnage from the grower.”

In Vic, some Wimmera, Mallee, and Western District locations recorded single-digit rainfall in the week to today, but conditions are abnormally dry, even for this time of year.

In South Australia, some gauges on Eyre Peninsula also recorded single-digit falls, while Kyancutta got 10mm and Streaky Bay 19mm.

Likewise, it was a dry week for the NSW grainbelt, with West Wyalong on 8mm topping the week’s falls.

Tags: exports, barley, wheat, chickpeas, Market, demand, sorghum