Australian wheat areas to grow 2% in 2014/2015 season

Total area planted to winter crops in Australia is forecast to reach 22.6 million hectares in 2014–2015, with y-o-y growth of 0.5%, according to the Crop Report from Australian Bureau of Agricultural Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES)

The area planted to wheat is expected to rise by 2% to 13.8 million hectares, reflecting an increase in the area planted to wheat in all states of Australia. Additionally, the area planted to canola is forecast to rise by 3% to 2.7 million hectares. However, the barley area is set to fall by 4.1% to 3.8 million hectares.

Seasonal conditions have been generally favorable for planting the 2014–2015 winter crops in most of the states, except those in most of northern New South Wales and Queensland, as low levels of soil moisture is observed in parts of these regions.  

Australia winter crop areas

Crop	2014-20151 (‘1000 ha)	2013-2014 (‘1000 ha)	Changes (%)
Wheat	13,837	13,512	+2.4
Barley	3,758	3,920	-4.1
Canola	2,738	2,655	+3.1
Oats	730	744	-1.9
Lupins	423	387	+9.3
Chickpeas	356	507	-29.8
Field peas	232	245	-5.3
Lentils	171	169	+1.2
Faba beans	161	152	+5.9
Triticale	152	152	0.0
Others2	17	16	+6.3
Total	22,575	22,459	+0.5
1: forecast 2: include linseed and safflower Source:ABARES