Thursday Morning Snippets: I've Just Googled Yelena Skrynnik
Argy farmers won't extend their current strike action past Friday, according to one of the farm union leaders. Exactly how many farmers he speaks for and how long it will be before the next inevitable strike is unclear.
Apparently there has been some speculation in the Argy media that the government, conscious that Argy farmers will plant a record number of soybean acres this coming season, might decide to cash in and actually increase the tax on soybeans from the existing 35%. Naturally foxy femme fatale Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner denies that completely. She's a bit like the Arsene Wenger of politics: "I don't know if we are raising the how you say taxes on soybeans, I was looking in the mirror fixing my hair/trying on some new shoes/distracted by the ball boys at the time."
Argy wheat planting is finished at 2.8 million hectares, according to the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange. That is the lowest planted area on record, and more than 40% down on last season. Corn planting for the 2010 harvest has just about kicked off, plantings are expected around 20% down.
In China 8 million hectares are still affected by drought and the flood season has now passed, according to the official State Flood Control and Drought Relief Office.
In India, despite various promises to release government-owned wheat stocks onto the market, nothing has been forthcoming so far. It's intriguing why this should be the case, given that they supposedly had 31 MMT of the stuff at the end of July. Maybe they are struggling to find any of that stock that's actually still fit for human consumption?!
After introducing a limit on how much domestic sugar stocks large manufacturers can hold, there is also talk of bringing in a similar restriction on soybean stocks in Madhya Pradesh, the state at the centre of the Indian soybean processing industry.
Russian Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik (I've just Googled her, she looks a bit like Anne Diamond at the end of a pie-eating contest - probably a pork pie-eating contest I'd wager) is standing by her forecast of a grain crop of only 85 MMT this year, down 21.4% on last season. She also raised her estimate of grain losses due to drought from 11 MMT to 13 MMT, saying that 4.5 million hectares have been destroyed. Ms Skrynnik is a female politician, you can make your own mind up from those two bits of information alone.
Egypt bought 330,000 MT of wheat in a tender yesterday. Of that 180.000 MT was French wheat, from three separate sellers all at $175/tonne FOB. In addition they also bought 60,000 MT of US wheat at $168 FOB and 90,000 MT of Russian wheat at between $172-173.72/tonne FOB.
Bunge, Glencore and Invivo were the sellers on the French wheat, Toepfer sold the US wheat and Cargill, Dreyfus & Global Intertrade were the Russian wheat sellers. Egyptian Traders didn't get a look in then obviously?
Apparently there has been some speculation in the Argy media that the government, conscious that Argy farmers will plant a record number of soybean acres this coming season, might decide to cash in and actually increase the tax on soybeans from the existing 35%. Naturally foxy femme fatale Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner denies that completely. She's a bit like the Arsene Wenger of politics: "I don't know if we are raising the how you say taxes on soybeans, I was looking in the mirror fixing my hair/trying on some new shoes/distracted by the ball boys at the time."
Argy wheat planting is finished at 2.8 million hectares, according to the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange. That is the lowest planted area on record, and more than 40% down on last season. Corn planting for the 2010 harvest has just about kicked off, plantings are expected around 20% down.
In China 8 million hectares are still affected by drought and the flood season has now passed, according to the official State Flood Control and Drought Relief Office.
In India, despite various promises to release government-owned wheat stocks onto the market, nothing has been forthcoming so far. It's intriguing why this should be the case, given that they supposedly had 31 MMT of the stuff at the end of July. Maybe they are struggling to find any of that stock that's actually still fit for human consumption?!
After introducing a limit on how much domestic sugar stocks large manufacturers can hold, there is also talk of bringing in a similar restriction on soybean stocks in Madhya Pradesh, the state at the centre of the Indian soybean processing industry.
Russian Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik (I've just Googled her, she looks a bit like Anne Diamond at the end of a pie-eating contest - probably a pork pie-eating contest I'd wager) is standing by her forecast of a grain crop of only 85 MMT this year, down 21.4% on last season. She also raised her estimate of grain losses due to drought from 11 MMT to 13 MMT, saying that 4.5 million hectares have been destroyed. Ms Skrynnik is a female politician, you can make your own mind up from those two bits of information alone.
Egypt bought 330,000 MT of wheat in a tender yesterday. Of that 180.000 MT was French wheat, from three separate sellers all at $175/tonne FOB. In addition they also bought 60,000 MT of US wheat at $168 FOB and 90,000 MT of Russian wheat at between $172-173.72/tonne FOB.
Bunge, Glencore and Invivo were the sellers on the French wheat, Toepfer sold the US wheat and Cargill, Dreyfus & Global Intertrade were the Russian wheat sellers. Egyptian Traders didn't get a look in then obviously?