Australia has lowered its forecast for wheat exports over the 2019/20 season by nearly 18 per cent amid the ongoing drought. Australia usually ranks among the world’s top grain exporting nations.

Australia lowered its forecast for wheat exports over the 2019/20 season by nearly 18% as a drought wilts crops in the world’s No.4 exporter of the grain. That comes after Australia’s chief commodity forecaster cut its production forecast for the 2019/20 harvest by more than 11% as the drought leaves crops struggling to survive. The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) said wheat exports would total 11.7 million tonnes in the crop year beginning in July, down from its previous estimate in March of 14.2 million tonnes. Lower Australian exports will support global benchmark prices. Dwindling wheat exports are also likely to hit Australia’s stuttering economy. Wheat is the country’s most lucrative rural export from an agricultural sector worth about $34.39 billion. Australian end-users of wheat have been forced into rare imports. Australia’s Department of Agriculture said that the first shipment of the commodity into the country in more than a decade had arrived in June, with ABARES saying more imports were likely. “More permits are expected to be issued for (imports of)wheat and other grains,” ABARES said. Much of Australia’s east coast has recorded less than 40% of typical rainfall levels over the last six months, data from the country’s bureau of meteorology shows.