Noodle hunger in SE Asia testing Australian farmers

Wheat farmers in Australia, the world's fourth-biggest shipper, will face an increasing challenge keeping up with their neighbors' appetite for bread and noodles.

Demand from Indonesia, the Philippines and three other Southeast Asian nations is set to jump 40 percent to 13.2 million metric tons by 2020, said Greg Harvey, chief executive officer of Interflour Group Pte. That may outpace the ability of Australia to supply the variety used in soft bread and noodles, he said in an interview in Singapore.

Faster growth and an expanding population are boosting consumption of everything from wheat and sugar to cooking oils in the region, which has more people than the European Union. Indonesia will become the world's second-largest wheat importer this year and has overtaken India as the top user of palm oil, the US government estimates. The United States, Canada and Russia could fill any shortages in Australian supply, he said.