China-Australia relations: wheat shipments to grain-hungry China surge as total 2020 exports just shy of record high
- Australian goods exported to China reached A$145.2 billion for 2020 despite a year rife with tariffs and trade restrictions, according to preliminary figures
- Australia shipped 600,000 tonnes of wheat to China last month – the largest-ever monthly wheat export total from Australia to any single country
Despite warnings that Chinese authorities might block Australian wheat amid an escalating political row, wheat exports to China surged last month, underscoring a year in which overall trade between the countries approached a record high.
After three months in which there had been no wheat trade between the two countries, hundreds of thousands of tonnes changed hands in December, valued at A$248 million (US$191.2 million), according to preliminary trade data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The exchange came in sharp contrast to the tensions that rocked the China-Australia relationship for most of 2020.
Final export figures will be confirmed early next month, but based on the preliminary international data released on Monday, Australia’s total goods exported to China reached A$145.2 billion for 2020. That would be just 2.16 per cent less than 2019’s A$148.4 billion total, which was the highest recorded in ABS data since 1988.
Amid blistering demand from grain-short Chinese importers, in part due to supply shortages in competing Black Sea markets, Australia shipped 600,000 tonnes of wheat to China last month and a further 110,000 tonnes this month, according to commodities analyst S&P Global Platts.