Australia’s Winter Crop 25/26 harvest nears completion, barley production record smashed!

The Australian Crop 25/26 is close to completion, with 98% of the estimated crop in the bin. Using bulk handler receival data, week ending 4 January, and estimates of on-farm and private storages, we have it that 65mmt of the winter crop has been harvested and just 1.5mmt to come.

GrainCorp has indicated the Queensland and New South Wales crops have basically being harvested while the Victorian harvest is still active in the South. Viterra advises the SE is the only area still active in SA and in the West, CBH say the State’s harvest will finish in the next two weeks. Riordans has Victoria’s southern harvest still active and noted the Tasmanian harvest has begun with around 5-10% complete.

The latest Barley production estimates from federal and state agencies now has the national total reaching almost 16mmt. This is an incredible 16% increase over the previous Australian barley production record of 13.7mmt, harvested in 22/23 and a 32% year-on-year increase.

With most of the crop in the bin, end users can be confident that Australia will have a substantial exportable surplus of barley this year. At current domestic usage, 7mmt of feed barley and 4mmt of malting barley will be available for the world market.