Lucerne on a price roll

Heritage Seeds international business manager Craig Myall said prices were heading in the right direction.

"We've seen a price rise for lucerne over the past few months," he said.

"Last year it was about $4 a kilogram, now it's more than $5/kg."

Marketers at Lucerne Australia's field day on Monday were bullish about this season.

While the price is still far from the highs of 2013, when lucerne climbed to $6/kg, it is an improvement on 2010 and 2009 harvests when seed was hard to move and prices dropped as low as $2-$2.50/kg.

Mr Myall said Australia exported 10,000 tonnes of lucerne seed last year.

"The main destinations were Saudi Arabia, with 2600t, the US 2400t, Argentina 1100t and Italy 1000t," he said.

"That means two major countries absorb about 50 per cent of our seed."

Aided by a falling Australian dollar, exports got off to a good start this year.

Mr Myall said while the strength of the US dollar against the $A boosted prospects, the Euro was not as favourable.

"US currency is certainly helping but we haven't seen the same drop in the euro," he said.

"If the dollar drops to about US70c it should continue to help farmers and marketers alike."

Domestic markets also seemed a lot more promising this year.

Mr Myall said it was just a matter of "getting it in the bin and then getting it out".

Naracoorte Seeds' Jamie Tidy said the $A trend was working well for the industry.

"With the $A coming back it's given the world a bit of confidence that things won't cost as much, and it's a very positive thing for all exporters," he said.