• Australian forecasters have pinned wheat production at 32.6 MMT for the 2021/22 marketing season ending June 30th, 2022. The figure would make it the second largest harvest on record of the country’s most valuable crop, after last year’s. The bumper harvest comes at a time when wheat prices hover near eight-year highs and after multiple years of droughts damaged Australian farms.

• Two major grain growing states, Western Australia and New South Wales, experienced ideal planting conditions and heavy rainfall this year. Other grain harvests, such as canola, also stand to be excellent. Wheat prices have spiked in the last month amid constrained global supplies caused by dry conditions in major grain-growing areas.

• This harvest would cement Australia as a top four global wheat exporter, but market participants are weary of looming worker shortages due to reliance on overseas workers that are unable to travel during the pandemic and delays in acquiring new equipment.