AWB National Pool has reviewed the Premium Choice Varieties (PCV) for next season, making one change with the removal of Yitpi from the PCV list for Victoria and South Australia from 2007/08.

AWB Pool Manager David Johnson said AWB conducted an annual review of the PCV list as part of its crop shaping effort, and the results show the program is achieving its goal of lifting the quality profile of the National Pool.

“The PCV program has been a success. We have achieved a six-fold increase in receivals of nominated varieties to date, and we will be continuing the program with the majority of those varieties for the 2007/08 season,” Mr Johnson said.

Mr Johnson said the only change for next season is the removal of Yitpi as a PCV. He said the change followed widespread uptake of the variety since the introduction of the program.

Yitpi is currently an AWB Premium Choice Variety in Victoria and South Australia, and attracts a $5 per tonne premium.

AWB said the AHP premium for Yitpi would remain in place for this harvest, but the variety will be received and paid as an AH variety, without a $5/t premium, from the 2007/08 season.

“In South Australia and Victoria, Yitpi has become a significant proportion of the National Pool receivals over the past two years, to the point where it has reached the targeted level we set when we established the Premium Choice Program. It is still a preferred variety, but the program has done its job with Yitpi,” Mr Johnson said.

“Our aim with Premium Choice Varieties is to increase the uptake of high quality varieties, so they increase the overall quality of the Pool. No variety is perfect and we are not aiming to get 100% of one variety in any pay grade, but to get the right balance to increase end use quality.”

“Growers will obviously continue growing Yitpi in the future if it remains the most profitable variety for them, and we are not about discouraging that.”

Mr Johnson said the decision to discontinue the premium on Yitpi meant, at this stage, there was no AWB Premium Choice Varieties for South Australia and Victoria for the 2007/08 season and beyond.

“When we established this program in 2004 we talked about the focus on developing some new high quality varieties for South Australia and Victoria. AWB has been working with the wheat breeding community to progress this, and we are looking forward to seeing some new high quality varieties in the near future,” Mr Johnson said.

Mr Johnson said the impact of the PCV program was evident in the receival figures for each state. “In each grade, this has improved the ‘shape’ of the crop and helped to preserve its value against stiff foreign competition. Further increases will bolster this success,” Mr Johnson said.

For instance, in Queensland, premium varieties constituted 21% of the hard wheat tonnages last year, a 12% increase from the previous harvest. For Southern NSW the proportion of hard wheat National Pool receivals that were premium varieties was only 8%, but was increasing. “While in Northern NSW we are approaching the 40% target, significant progress is still required in Southern NSW,” Mr Johnson said.

In WA PCV comprised over 25% of ASWN receipts last year, up from around 10% the previous year. For AH, receipts of Premium Choice Varieties increased from 11% to almost 50%.