Nogger's Blog

07/03/11 -- There's nothing too exciting around to whet the old appetite on the overnight markets so far. Globex wheat and beans are a bit lower and corn a little higher. The dollar remains weak, with the pound pushing above 1.63 again. The euro is steady, where we begin the week where we ended the last at around 1.1640.

Crude is higher again, with Brent up a dollar or so and NYMEX up over a dollar and a half.

A leading Chinese grain official has stunned the market by saying that the country has 100 MMT of wheat reserves. That's two thirds more than the USDA's 60 MMT estimate and almost a year's worth of consumption.

He is Chinese and an economist, so it may be that it's the truth that he's being economical with of course.

If he's right that potentially pegs world ending stocks this season at a bumper 217 MMT, 20 MMT MORE than the "burdensome" year of 2009/10 when ex-farm prices in the UK slumped below GBP90/tonne!

Another leading Chinese official says that the current high price of corn will limit the country's corn imports this year.

Iraq bought 400,000 MT of US/Australian wheat split 300,000 MT US and 100,000 MT Ozzie over the weekend.

The plight of the British pig industry sprung to mind again over the weekend during a trip to Morrisons where they were practically giving away just about every cut of British pork. Large boned and rolled shoulder joints for a fiver and packs of ten or so ribs and/or four decent sized chops for two quid. Astonishing and depressing in equal measure.