Kazakhstan suffered the most from the current wheat harvest of any country in the world.
Australia ranks first this year in reducing wheat yields. The strengthening of the El Niño climate process has led to drought in Australia, which will significantly reduce wheat harvests this year, according to FAO forecasts. Thus, the harvest will fall from 39.7 million tons last year to 25.4 million tons (-36%). These figures are the worst this year, both in absolute terms and in percentage terms, if small countries are excluded. Dry weather has allowed farmers to increase the gluten content of wheat, which will help offset losses through higher selling prices.
Kazakhstan was in second place in the world for the percentage drop in harvest this year. The harvest decline, according to the FAO report, will reach 32% or 5.2 million tons relative to 2022. However, compared to the average figures for 2019-2021, the drop is not so catastrophic and amounts to 10.4%. In principle, we have already written several times about the fall in the harvest and about the record volume of low-quality wheat in previous times.
Algeria is in third place with a 17% drop in harvest. However, Algeria is not such a big player in the market with a harvest of 3 million tons. Canada was in fourth place with a result of minus 13% and minus 4.5 million tons. The drop was also the result of drought. However, compared to average figures, the drop is insignificant, and the quality, on the contrary, has improved. There is a high level of gluten and the fact that approximately 90% of the crop is grade 1 or 2.
Russia is in fifth place with a 10% decrease in harvest. However, these volumes were still much higher than the average values for previous years. In absolute terms, Russia's decline is second only to Australia - minus 10.7 million tons.
In conclusion, we can say that Kazakhstan turned out to be the most affected country in the world in terms of wheat harvest. In Canada and Russia, the decline was not as significant. In addition, the quality of wheat in Canada has improved, but in Russia the harvest is still excellent relative to average values. In Australia, the percentage reduction in yield turned out to be comparable, but the quality turned out to be higher. Whereas in Kazakhstan there is a sharp decline in yield and a drop in quality.
