El Nino dims Australia wheat harvest outlook

Melbourne

AUSTRALIA reduced its wheat production outlook as the El Nino weather event threatens to curb yields in the country's east.

The harvest may total 23.6 million tonnes in 2015-2016 from 24.4 million tonnes forecast in March, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural & Resource Economics & Sciences said in a report. Output was 23.7 million tonnes a year earlier and 25.3 million in 2013-2014, it said. Farmers in the world's fifth-biggest exporter begin harvesting about October.