NEW DELHI, INDIA – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) revised wheat production for the 2023-24 marketing year in the United States higher to 1.812 billion bushels (49.3 million tonnes), 78 million bushels higher than its projection in September, according to the World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) released on Oct. 13.

US ending stocks and domestic consumption were also revised higher by the USDA, with ending stocks pegged at 670 million bushels (an increase of 18.2 million bushels) and domestic consumption forecast at 1.159 billion bushels, 30 million bushels higher than the September estimate.

The WASDE report showed higher projections for hard red winter wheat (up 16 million bushels to 601 million), hard red spring (up 55 million bushels to 413 million) and soft red winter (up 9 million bushels to 449 million). Durum was forecast to increase by 2 million tonnes to 59 million while white wheat output is expected to total 235 million bushels, down 4 million bushels from the September estimate.

Conversely, the USDA revised global wheat production lower to 783.4 million tonnes, down 4 million tonnes from the September estimate. It noted that the decline in projected output was due to smaller production in Australia, Kazakhstan and Ethiopia due to drier conditions.