At last there might be good news for Australia’s drought stricken farmers. A new report suggests that increasing demand from Asia could create enormous opportunities for Australian livestock and grain producers over the next decade.

The joint report by the Australian Farm Institute and Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, focuses on the growing food demand from 12 Asian nations including China, Japan and India. It is projected that the 12 Asian nations will represent more than half the world’s population by 2020 - 3.8 billion people.

The report says that demand from the growing nations for Australian beef, pork, chicken and dairy products would increase by between 30 and 50 per cent to 2020.

The resultant increase in demand for feed grains would be just as important for Australian agriculture. Maize and sorghum were likely to be in the greatest demand, said Mick Keogh, executive director of the Australian Farm Institute.

Some sectors of Australia’s agriculture industry have reacted with caution to the sunny outlook. Northern Territory farmers say that the high cost of shipping from the Port of Darwin – where freight costs can be as much as three times higher than southern ports – could prevent northern farmers from cashing in on the boom.

In other agriculture news, Tuesday’s ABARE Crop Report lifted official production forecasts for wheat, barley and canola for 2007-08. All three crop forecasts were boosted from previous figures released in October.

Phillip Glyde, ABARE’s executive director, said that despite the poor winter cropping season in most regions, yields had proved to be better than pre-harvest expectations, particularly in South Australia and Victoria.