New wheat preference testing kicks off in South-East Asia in bid to boost Australian exports

A new project is under way to better understand wheat quality preferences in Australia’s most valuable wheat export region — South-East Asia. The project was launched this month by the Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre and will run until December with investment from Grains Australia. Quality preference testing will be carried out to inform breeding, production and classification decisions for Australia’s wheat industry. AEGIC market insights manager Chris Carter and wheat quality technical markets manager Larisa Cato will meet with end users and customers in the region, with the project building on information collected in-market from 2015- 2019. “At that time, the AEGIC team conducted rigorous choice analysis with flour millers and other processors across South-East Asia on a range of end-product and flour quality attributes,” Dr Carter said. “The resulting insights gave the Australian industry crucial guidance on how to tailor Australia’s wheat offering to customer preferences. “Under the new project, AEGIC will expand, review and verify this intelligence to ensure the Australian industry has access to the latest insights.” WA wheat production for 2024-25 was forecast to hit 9.91 million tonnes in the latest crop report by the Grains Industry Association of WA, released in late October. WA accounts for about 40 per cent of Australia’s total wheat production, with more than 95 per cent of WA wheat exported annually — mostly to Asia and the Middle East. Australia is forecast to produce 31.8 million tonnes of wheat in 2024-25, making it the largest wheat producer in the southern hemisphere. If the forecast is realised it will be the fourth-highest Australian wheat harvest on record, and 20 per cent above the 10-year average. The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics has predicted weaker import demand from Australia’s traditional export markets, including China and South-East Asia, will affect Australian wheat exports during 2024–25. Despite Australia’s geographic proximity to key Asian markets, providing a freight advantage, large volumes of low-priced wheat coming out of the Black Sea are expected to provide high competition. South-East Asian countries can be more price-sensitive than other markets because of a high number of low-income consumers. However, demand for milling wheat in Asia is expected to remain strong during 2024–25.