Rabobank

Trade logistics are set to become increasingly challenging for Australia’s agricultural sector with the escalating tensions in the Red Sea disrupting global trade, according to agribusiness banking specialist Rabobank. However, there are also potential upsides for the nation’s wheat and barley exports, the bank said.

Australia’s farmers are approaching the end of the year with a hint of improving optimism as rural confidence levels nudge slightly higher in the latest quarter. The Q4 Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey, found net level farmer confidence across the nation edged up marginally…

Southern hemisphere beef-producing nations – including Australia – are continuing to increase production volumes, despite a global trend of production decline, Rabobank says in its recently-released Q4 Global Beef Quarterly report ... "we forecast that 2024 will play out in a similar fashion": Rabobank.

Global food commodity prices are set for respite in 2024 after three years of record highs caused by war, adverse weather and rising energy and input costs, according to Rabobank’s annual Agri Commodity Markets Outlook report. The specialist food and agribusiness bank predicts that global prices of key food staples sugar, coffee, corn and soybeans will fall...

After extreme market volatility and record-high prices in recent years, global fertiliser prices are expected to settle in 2024, despite uncertainty posed by the Israel-Hamas conflict as it currently stands, Rabobank says in a new report. In its just-released Semi Annual Fertiliser Outlook, titled What is next?, the agribusiness banking specialist says while the Israel-Hamas conflict creates some uncertainty in the outlook for fertiliser markets, the current impact for the food and agri sectors is manageable.

After three consecutive strong harvests, Australian grain and oilseed production is set to return to more modest totals for the current season as drier growing conditions ‘hit home’, Rabobank says in its just-released 2023/24 Australian Winter Crop Forecast. The bank says Australia is on track to harvest a total winter crop of 48.72 million tonnes for the current season.

Australia’s sheep, cattle and goat markets are being impacted by very high production numbers, compounded by already large volumes of meat in congested supply chains, according to agricultural analysts at Rabobank. For the sheep sector particularly, there is effectively a "mountain of supply at the moment" following two "extremely good seasons"...

Improved affordability of agricultural fertiliser is set to prompt a recovery in demand and application rates by farmers next season, Rabobank says in a recently-released report. In its Australian Fertiliser Outlook 2024/25, the specialist agribusiness bank says Australian farm fertiliser consumption had declined 20 per cent in 2022...

South-East Asia presents a "bright spot" for Australian and New Zealand dairy exporters in an "increasingly lethargic global economy", Rabobank says in a recently-released sector report. The specialist agribusiness bank says "better times lie ahead" for the dairy markets of the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam...

Even early removal of Chinese anti-dumping tariffs would not be enough to prevent Australia’s wine industry facing several years of oversupply, Rabobank says in its newly-released Wine Quarterly Q3 2023 report ... So large is the current oversupply, says Ms Piggott, that Australia has the equivalent of 859 olympic swimming pools worth of wine in storage.