Weathering the Storm: A Recap of the 22/23 Harvest Season

As we move into March, we’re wrapping up our 22/23 monthly harvest insights blogs and thought it'd be nice to take a look back at the past few months. 

Harvest was delayed for a second year in a row into November with the wet weather causing some serious delays and logistical challenges on the east coast of Australia. But for those who managed to get their crops off, they were pleasantly surprised with the quality and the high prices they received. On the marketing front, growers were reluctant to sell with as much as 80% of grower delivered tonnes into the AgriDigital network remaining in ‘warehouse’ across November, and significant volumes being held on farm.

December brought about some macroeconomic uncertainties with inflation and China's lockdown 'crisis', but South and Western Australia managed to break records with their crop yields. It wasn't easy though, as the supply chain was pushed to its limits trying to keep up with the volume of grain being received. Meanwhile, the eastern states had their own battle to fight, as flood prone areas along major river systems faced floods caused by record spring rains.

January was a strong month for domestic prices, thanks to international factors such as the US winter wheat conditions and the war in Ukraine. There was also an unexpected increase in protein grades which resulted in the tightening of protein-feed spreads in most port zones. Victorian growers finally managed to start harvesting, with high yields throughout the state.

Lastly, February was a bit of a slow month with deliveries and volumes reducing by 50% from the previous month, and relatively small volumes being transacted.

Notable YoY commodity totals across our AgriDigital network includes a 52% increase in lentils delivered to 115k tonnes and a 28% reduction in delivered barley down to 532k tonnes. 

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