Australian Wine exports keep strong despite weather

Australian Wine exports keep strong despite weather

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Australian wine exports declined by 4 percent in value to $2.77 billion in the 12 months to March 2021, compared with the previous corresponding period.

This driven principally by the toll taken by high Chinese tariffs, according to an Australian Wine Report released on April.

Export volume declined by 1 percent to 724 million liters.

While the average price per liter for wine exports declined by 3 percent to $3.82 free on board.

Australian Wine Chief Executive Officer Andreas Clark said the decline in exports was due principally to a steep decline in exports to mainland China.

As well as the cumulative effects of three consecutive lower vintage in Australia leading to less volume available to export.

‘Notwithstanding the impact of China’s tariffs, we were still looking at a potential downturn in exports over this period simply due to the supply situation’, Mr. Clark said.

Mr. Clark said exports to China for the December 2020 to March 2021 period were just $12 million compared to $325 million in the comparable period a year ago.

‘As the tariffs apply to product in bottles under 2 liters, the decline in exports to China was mainly in bottled exports.

This, along with increased unpackaged shipments to other markets such as the UK, resulted in a drop in the share of bottled exports in the export mix.

From 46 percent of total volume in the 12 months ended March 2020 to 41 percent in the same period in 2021. This led to the decline in the overall average value of exports.’

Mr. Clark said on a more positive note there had been significant growth in exports to Europe, which was up 23 percent to $710 million, the highest value in a decade.

‘There was also growth to North America, up 5%.

Source: Wine Australia

Australia and Singapore in talks About travel bubble

Australia and Singapore in talks About travel bubble

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Australia and Singapore are in talks on a possible travel bubble that will allow residents to travel between both countries without having to quarantine, Singapore confirmed on Sunday (Mar 14).

The two countries are also in discussions on the mutual recognition of vaccination certificates and resuming travel with priority for students and business travelers, Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said in response to media queries.

“Australia is a key partner of Singapore in the region. We are in discussions on how to cooperate in opening our economies safely, taking into consideration the COVID-19 situation in both countries,” it said. 

Both countries have been able to keep the COVID-19 pandemic under control, MFA added.

Discussions on a possible Australia – Singapore travel bubble were reported by the Sydney Morning Herald earlier on Sunday.

The report said it could be possible for people from other countries to enter Australia via Singapore after completing two weeks’ quarantine in Singapore.

MFA said the two countries are not in talks on a quarantine center or vaccination hub.

“Australian nationals can transit via Singapore without quarantining to return home if they travel on approved transit routes and if they comply with our public health protocols while in transit,” it said.

What does the Trade Minister of Australia say?

Sydney Morning Herald also cited Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan as saying he had held discussions with his Singapore counterpart Chan Chun Sing about a travel bubble.

It quoted Mr. Tehan as saying that Singapore is keen to work with Australia on a vaccination certificate and that both ministers agreed to work together on this.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said Australia was “working with Singapore at the moment potentially for a bubble (beginning) in July”.

“As the vaccine rolls out, not only in Australia but in other countries, we will reopen more bubbles,” he told public broadcaster ABC.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore welcomed the talks on a possible travel corridor.

“This is great news for business and for Singaporeans and Australians alike,” the chamber’s president Chris Coburn told CNA.

Source: Channel News Asia

Australian farmers harvested their largest wheat crop

Australian farmers harvested their largest wheat crop

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Australian farmers have harvested their largest-ever wheat crop, according to the latest crop report issued by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences issued Feb. 16. ABARES estimated the 2020-21 Australian wheat crop at 33.337 million tons, up 18.172 million tons, or 120%, from the drought-reduced 2019-20 outturn of 15.165 million tons.

The 2020-21 wheat crop was 5% larger than the previous record outturn of 31.819 million tons in 2016-17 and compared with the recent five-year average outturn of 21.6 million tons.

“Harvesting of winter crops (including wheat) is now largely complete,” ABARES said in a commentary accompanying its crop report. “National production is estimated to have increased 89% in 2020-21 to 55.2 million tons, 7.4% higher than the forecast presented in the December 2020 edition of the Australian crop report. The upward revision was the result of yields continuing to exceed initial forecasts as harvest progressed, particularly in New South Wales and Western Australia.”

The higher estimate for 2020-21 wheat production will be reflected in the March US Department of Agriculture World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report, which will be issued on March 9.

The current USDA forecast for 2020-21 Australian wheat production was 30 million tons.

Australian harvest was predicted

Australia was poised to produce its second-largest wheat crop on record in 2020-21, more than doubling last year’s drought-affected estimate of 15.2 million tons, according to a Jan. 26 report from the US Department of Agriculture’s Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN).

This year’s projected crop of 31 million tones, if realized, would rank behind only the 2016-17 season when nearly 33 million tones-of wheat were harvested.

The report noted that GrainCorp, the major grain handler in the New South Wales region, is reporting a huge increase in wheat receivables with the company has taken in 8.4 million tons as of mid-January, compared to only 500,000 tons at the same time last year.

“This is a monumental turnaround that has strongly supported Australia’s forecast wheat production of 31 million tons,” the report said.

Source: WordlGrain.

Woman waiting in a long line for a flight wearing a N95 face mask during a global pandemic

Australia and Vietnam’s travel will be allowed in Singapore from Oct 8

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Singapore will unilaterally lift border restrictions to visitors from Australia – excluding Victoria state – and Vietnam from Oct 8.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) announced that these two countries both have comprehensive public health surveillance systems and have successfully controlled the spread of the Covid-19.

“The risk of importation from these countries is low,” said the authority, noting that over the last 28 days, Vietnam had zero local Covid-19 cases while Australia (excluding Victoria state) had a low virus incidence rate of 0.02 cases per 100,000 people.

Visitors from Australia and Vietnam will be able to apply for the Air Travel Pass for entry into Singapore from Thursday. The earliest day they will be able to come into Singapore will be Oct 8.

The Air Travel Pass scheme allows for all forms of short-term travel, including leisure travel. This is in contrast to reciprocal green lane arrangements between countries, which are usually for essential business and official travel.

Visitors will have to take a swab test upon arrival and can go about their activities after they get a negative test result. They will have to use the TraceTogether app for the duration of their stay here, among other conditions.

Australia and Vietnam join other countries

Australia and Vietnam countries join New Zealand and Brunei as the four countries that Singapore has unilaterally opened its borders to, as the country bids to revive its tourism and travel markets.

Since border restrictions to visitors from Brunei and New Zealand were lifted on Sept 8, CAAS has approved 331 applications from travelers from the two countries.

As of 5 pm on Wednesday, 136 visitors have arrived so far. None of them tested positive upon arrival and have been intruded about all the protocols and country’s measures, so they can easily adapt during their stay.