CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA — The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) forecast Australia’s 2013-14 wheat production at 25,399,000 tonnes, up 3,320,000 tonnes, or 15%, from 22,079,000 tonnes in 2012-13. 

The forecast was preliminary as wheat planting was still under way and was based on ABARES forecast for wheat planted area at 13,677,000 hectares, up 3% from 13,243,000 hectares in 2012-13, and forecast average yield of 1.86 tonnes per hectare compared with 1.98 tonnes per hectare in 2012-13 and 1.8 tonnes per hectare as the recent five-year average.