EU Wheat Ends Higher
EU wheat futures closed higher, despite a weak dollar, on concerns over US and Chinese crop conditions.
Paris May milling wheat closed up EUR0.50 at EUR143.00/tonne, and London May feed wheat finished up GBP1.75 at GBP114.00/tonne.
Despite the pound managing to put in a half-decent day at the office for once, UK wheat futures pushed higher after several days of losses.
Worries about drought in the US plains may reduce yields there, with plantings already down quite sharply.
Meanwhile, nobody seems to be accurately able to figure out exactly what is going on in China. The official line is, probably quite rightly, treated with some degree of scepticism. If you want to believe what they say, then despite being gripped the worst drought in at least fifty years, crop conditions now are no worse that they were a year ago.
Closer to home, all is not looking overly rosy for the UK crop, with some private estimates coming in considerably lower for 2009 than early expectations.
Common sense seems to say that a combination of late plantings, lower acreage, reduced inputs and poorer soil conditions will inevitably lead to a much lower crop in 2009. Generally however most estimates don't seem to be showing anything more than a 5-8% reduction.
One private estimate I saw yesterday says that this years UK wheat crop will be 14.1mmt, around 2mmt below what the likes of Strategie Grains are currently saying, and around 3.5mmt below 2008's production.
Paris May milling wheat closed up EUR0.50 at EUR143.00/tonne, and London May feed wheat finished up GBP1.75 at GBP114.00/tonne.
Despite the pound managing to put in a half-decent day at the office for once, UK wheat futures pushed higher after several days of losses.
Worries about drought in the US plains may reduce yields there, with plantings already down quite sharply.
Meanwhile, nobody seems to be accurately able to figure out exactly what is going on in China. The official line is, probably quite rightly, treated with some degree of scepticism. If you want to believe what they say, then despite being gripped the worst drought in at least fifty years, crop conditions now are no worse that they were a year ago.
Closer to home, all is not looking overly rosy for the UK crop, with some private estimates coming in considerably lower for 2009 than early expectations.
Common sense seems to say that a combination of late plantings, lower acreage, reduced inputs and poorer soil conditions will inevitably lead to a much lower crop in 2009. Generally however most estimates don't seem to be showing anything more than a 5-8% reduction.
One private estimate I saw yesterday says that this years UK wheat crop will be 14.1mmt, around 2mmt below what the likes of Strategie Grains are currently saying, and around 3.5mmt below 2008's production.