Sharjah24 - Reuters: Australia is poised for a third year of near-record wheat production in 2022 as good weather boosts planting across its grain belt, easing concerns over tight global inventories.

World wheat supplies have tightened after Russia's invasion of Ukraine earlier this year cut off shipments from one of the top exporting regions, sending grain prices sharply higher and fuelling fears of a global food crisis.

India's recent move to ban exports and adverse weather in the United States have added to concerns over the availability of food grains.

Benchmark Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures prices jumped to an all-time high of $13.64 a bushel in March. The market was trading up 0.4% at $10.45-1/4 a bushel, as of 0307 GMT on Thursday.

Farmers in Australia, which emerged as the world's second largest wheat exporter in 2021/22, have nearly finished this year's wheat planting on about 14.45 million hectares (35.7 million acres), an all-time high, encouraged by red-hot prices and ideal growing conditions, according to estimates from brokerage IKON Commodities.

Last year, wheat was produced on around 14 million hectares, it added.