EU Grains Mostly Lower

24/12/13 -- EU grains closed mostly lower heading into Christmas, although overall the sideways trend still persists.

Jan 14 London wheat ended down GBP1.25/tonne at GBP163.75/tonne, Jan 14 Paris wheat finished EUR0.25/tonne easier at EUR211.00/tonne, Jan 14 Paris corn fell EUR1.00/tonne to EUR172.50/tonne, whilst Feb 14 Paris rapeseed dropped EUR1.50/tonne to EUR367.75/tonne.

Essentially there was little in the way of fresh news, this was merely a tidying up before Christmas exercise.

Russia said that their winter grains planting was complete at 14.7 million hectares, and that they'd also sown 288k ha of winter rapeseed.

Ukraine said that they'd exported 17.58 MMT of grains so far this season, up 27.7% versus 2012/13. That includes 6.64 MMT of wheat, 2.02 MMT of barley and 8.8 MMT of corn as they now start to major on shipments of the latter.

The Ukraine Ministry forecast grain exports in 2013/14 a record 32.5 MMT, up from 23 MMT a year ago.

Ag Canada forecast that the country would export 22 MMT of wheat this season, up from a previous estimate of 20.5 MMT and compared to 19.4 MMT in 2012/13.

India announced a tender for 60 TMT of wheat as they continue to attempt to clear some space ahead of their next harvest due to begin in late March.