I’ve been around long enough to remember when China was a minor player in the wool market. 

If my memory serves me correctly, in the 1980s the then Australian Wool Corporation began touting China as the next big thing for wool. 

It was along the lines of – imagine if every person in China bought woolen socks. 

Then, as now, I found it rather condescending and culturally inappropriate, but then, lo and behold, fast forward to now, and China is buying 80 per cent of our wool, and India is overtaking Europe as a key export market.

The grains industry has made a similar, though less momentous, prediction. 

A delegation has been in Canberra to try to convince the Standing Committee on Agriculture that the industry needs government support to make the most of the emerging market for feed grains in southeast Asia.

We currently export in excess of 15 million tonnes of grain, most of it wheat, to Asia. 

As with China, there is a growing middle class and the face of agriculture in Asia is changing. 

Large corporates are now investing in intensive livestock production and aquaculture and with that comes huge demand for feed grains.

In an interview with Country Today, Grain Trade Australia chief executive Pat O’Shannassy said the feed grain consumption in southeast Asia was already enormous. 

“It’s got to about 70 million tonnes in just the last few years. We think there’s enormous growth there as those markets move to more protein in their diets. A lot of it is sourced from domestic corn producers, but what we see is that, as demand increases, their capacity to meet that demand will diminish and that will open up opportunities for other sources of feed grain, such as Australia,” Mr O’Shannassy said.

The most grains with the most potential for export are wheat, barley and sorghum, depending on pricing.

There is a caveat though. Grain growers would be mistaken in thinking it’s a potential market for downgraded grain due to weather damage. 

“One of the things we’ve done as an industry over the years is to convince our farmers that feed value is failure. What we need to do is turn that around and say that feed producers are looking for high-quality grains. They’re not looking for weather damaged grain. They are looking for high quality grain to improve their output,” Mr O’Shannassy said.

So the take-home message? 

“From an Australian farmer’s point of view, we’ve got to move away from this concept of feed grain equals failure, to say that feed is the target market. For instance, some of the low protein wheats in the past few years have moved very readily into this market in the Philippines, Vietnam and others markets as well,” Mr O’Shannassy said.

The entire August 27, 2024 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!

The entire August, 27, 2024 edition of AgLife is available online. READ IT HERE!