CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA — Australia’s bulk storage of wheat in January was up 16% compared to the previous year and 4% compared to December’s numbers, according to the Stocks of Grain Held by Bulk Handling Companies and Grain Traders report issued by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Feb. 20.

Wheat storage increased by 981,000 tonnes to 25.6 million tonnes in January. This was 3.4 million tonnes higher than the amount stored in January 2011.

Improvement in the new season’s wheat harvest continued into January, ABS said, with a further rise in the volume of quality wheat grain. Stocks of milling wheat grain were 17.6 million tonnes, which was 69% of all grain stored in January.

Feed grade wheat grain stocks were 8 million tonnes, or 31% of all grain stored, a decrease of 1.7 million tonnes from January 2011.

With the exception of Queensland and South Australia, all states recorded rises in stocks of wheat grain in January, when compared to December 2011.

Western Australia stored the largest amount at 9.5 million tonnes, which was 37% of the national stocks. New South Wales was the next largest at 7 million tonnes, or 27% of national stocks.