Miller Magazine Issue: 147 March 2022

113 Country Profile MILLER / march 2022 Australia is on track to produce another large crop, but farmers in the country face a cost-price squeeze due to an increased cost of production. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia could further complicate and in- flate the cost of many of these inputs. I have lived in Australia for twelve years, and each of those has been quite different! The one word that best sums up agriculture in this continent is variable! During my time here, the country has had its share of floods, frosts, droughts, fires and mice plagues. The last four years really stand out as memorable; we had two years of severe drought, followed by two consecutive years of record wheat production. These past two seasons have allowed Australian farmers to recoup the losses of the bad years and brought Australian wheat back onto the global market. Chart 1 below displays wheat production in Australia since 2010, along with our first projections for the 2022 crop. Our cur- rent estimates for the wheat crop are 30mmt +/- 2.5mmt, which might seem like a big variation; there are two months to planting and nine months until harvest. 2022 Australia – A year of challenges and opportunities Andrew Whitelaw Manager Thomas Elder Markets Melbourne