Farmers Expecting Great La Nina Year
The Age
Wednesday February 13, 2008
AFTER years of drought that have destroyed crops and devastated farmers, 2008 could be "a year to remember" for Australian agriculture, a report says.
A cautiously optimistic report by the rural bank Rabobank says that after the challenges of 2007, the recent emergence of a La Nina weather pattern that improved the chance of good rains, and high global commodity prices, give Australian farmers their best prospects in years.It nominates cereal, dairy, wool and sugar as some of the key areas well placed to capitalise on an improvement.The editor of Rabobank's Australian Agriculture in Focus report, Bill Cordingley, said that subject to rains, grain and crop farmers had the brightest outlook for 2008."Global prices have more than doubled in the past 12 months," he said. "United States wheat prices that started last year at $US5.15 ($A5.70) per bushel reached $US10.48 in yesterday's trade. And that's our key commodity." The outlook for prices was very favourable, and it was extremely likely that grain and oilseed farmers would do well. The report is also upbeat about the dairy industry this year, largely thanks to a boom in global demand for dairy products.Despite the broadly optimistic outlook for Australian agriculture, the report cautions that many farmers desperately need to have a good year. "Undoubtedly the stakes are much higher for many Australian farmers in 2008," it says. "After two consecutive years of drought and with farmers' costs rapidly rising, a good season is badly needed to rebuild battered farm balance sheets."For most, 2007 will be remembered as a year of lost opportunity." However, it said, expectations were for prices to remain high in 2008, which would provide hope that losses in recent years could be recovered quickly should the season allow. If the positive La Nina climatic cycle continued to emerge and the rains came, 2008 could be a year to remember for Australian agriculture.
© 2008 The Age
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