WHEAT SURPLUS IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27738, 16 August 1955, Page 9

WHEAT SURPLUS IN AUSTRALIA

93,000,000 BUSHELS CARRYOVER The Australian Wheat Board expects a carry-over of 93,000,000 bushels at the beginning of the wheat year on December 1, according to a member of the board, Mr E. G. Hoy. Mr Hoy, who is a New South Wales growers’ representative on the Wheat Board, told the annual conference of the Farmers and Settlers’ Association in Sydney that reports from other States indicated a better than normal harvest in the coming season. The carry-over at December 1 last was also 93,000,000 bushels, and this had been followed by a harvest of 152,000,000 bushels. Home consumption was 58,000,000 bushels and Australia’s exports under the International Wheat Agreement were 44,000,000 bushels. The board, Mr Hoy said, was doing its utmost to dispose of the remainder on the world free market. On the question of storage, which was a major problem when last year’s big surplus was looming, the conference received some comforting news from the chairman of the New South Wales Government Grain Elevator Board, Mr G. Hodgson. By the time of the next harvest, wheat storage capacity in New South Wales would be about 70,000,000 bushels, he said. It had increased by more than 100 per cent, since 1951.