Australia summer crop area up 6%

Date:09-12-2014

The area planted to summer crops in Australia in 2014–15 is forecast to rise by 5.7% to 1.1 million hectares, according to the Crop Report from Australian Bureau of Agricultural Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES).

The area planted to cotton is forecast to fall significantly by 28.1% to 282,000 hectares, largely offsetting the substantial increase expected in area planted to grain sorghum, forecasted to be up 26.4% by 623,000 hectares. The reduced cotton area largely reflects reduced availability of irrigation water following three years of plentiful water supplies. The area planted to rice is forecast to rise by 19.7% to 91 000 hectares, reflecting expected favourable returns to growers.

Australia summer crop area (‘1000 ha)
Crop	2014-20151	2014-2013	Changes %
Grain sorghum	623	493	+26.4
Cotton	282	392	-28.1
Rice	91	76	+19.7
Corn	67	58	+15.5
Soybeans	38	31	+22.6
Sunflower	37	27	+37.0
Others	50	48	+4.2
Total	1,188	1125	+5.7
1: forecast Source:ABARES

Total area planted to winter crops in Australia is forecast to reach 22.5 million hectares in 2014–2015, with a growth of 0.6%. The area planted to wheat is expected to rise by 2.4% to 13.8 million hectares. Additionally, the canola area is forecast to rise by 2.2% to 2.7 million hectares. However, the barley area is set to fall by 3.6% to 3.7 million hectares.

Australia winter crop area (‘1000 ha)
Crop	2014-20151	2014-2013	Changes %
Wheat	13,837	13,512	+2.4
Barley	3,778	3,920	-3.6
Canola	2,714	2,655	+2.2
Chickpeas	339	507	-33.1
Faba beans	168	152	+10.5
Field peas	231	245	-5.7
Lentils	174	169	+3.0
Lupins	437	387	+12.9
Oats	739	744	-0.7
Triticale	152	152	0.0
Others	18	16	+12.5
Total	22,587	22,459	+0.6
1: forecast Source:ABARES