EU Wheat Ends Lower On Currency

EU wheat closed lower Wednesday with November Paris milling wheat futures down EUR0.25 at EUR128/tonne, and London November feed wheat closing down GBP1.45 at GBP103.25/tonne.

A weaker dollar, and firmer pound and euro prompted some selling at levels around GBP10-12 and EUR9-10 higher than recent lows.

UK consumers still report that farmers are generally reluctant sellers, buoyed no doubt by recent price rises.

Although exchange rates went against UK wheat in particular today, many pundits are forecasting much lower rates to come by the end of the year, which should be supportive for UK wheat.

Official figures released today show that UK exports are actually running significantly higher this marketing year than they were twelve months ago. That is an interesting statistic considering that we had around 3.5 MMT to export in 2008/09, compared to only around 2.25 MMT this season.

Also of interest is the news that the French Ministry dropped it's estimate of soft wheat production there by almost 1 MMT to 36.6 MMT.