Australia's wheat exports are rebounding from a Christmas lull despite the lower quality of the crop, which was confirmed in data on Tuesday showing a near-tripling in levels of feed wheat.
AWB, the country's former wheat export monopoly, said that Australian wheat was "gaining its share of customer interest" amid a "frenzy of activity", which on Friday saw the US report its best week for exports of the grain for six years.
"It is many months yet until the next northern hemisphere harvest and buyers are aware that world stocks are tight," Mitch Morison, the AWB general manager commodities, said.
The improvement in trade after a "subdued" Christmas period comes, in Australia, despite the poor quality of the crop following heavy rains on the eastern farms which have produced the lion's share of the national harvest this year.
Milling vs feed
Indeed, separately, official data showed 38% of Australian stocks as of the end of last month, most of the way through harvest, were of feed grade.
This proportion compared with 25% in November, before the worst of the rains, and with 13.6% in December 2009, amid more favourable harvest conditions.
Nonetheless, Mr Morison reported "good business occurring" for Australian exporters in the feed wheat market, with the supplies "continuing to displace corn into Asian feed markets".
The comments come a week after reports that China had turned to buying Australian wheat rather than US corn as a feed source stalled a rally in corn futures in Chicago.
"Without question buyers are keen to secure supply from Australia," AWB said, lifting by up to Aus$13 a tonne its estimate for returns to farmers selling through its wheat pools.
The return for the benchmark eastern Australia premium wheat pool was lifted by Aus$5 to Aus$365 a tonne.
'Badly sprouted'
Rainy weather is continuing to dog some farmers who have been as yet unable to finish their harvest.
GrainCorp, the rival grain handler, on Monday warning of a further deterioration in the quality of unharvested grain in Victoria, with "significant quantities" expected to have sprouted on the stalk.
The company reported grain receivals of 400,000 tonnes for the week, taking its total for the season to 13.0m tonnes.
