EU Wheat Ends Lower On Swine Flu Panic

EU wheat closed lower Monday, largely due to a knee-jerk reaction to the media coverage of the swine flu outbreak in Mexico.

Although the outbreak started a couple of weeks ago, press reports escalated over the weekend, sending the overnight grains markets sharply lower Monday morning. EU prices followed the eCBOT market lower from the off today.

Whilst the death of 149 people (as reported on the BBC news tonight) in Mexico is lamentable, we have to get this thing in perspective. There are 110 million people in Mexico, nobody outside the country has died from infection, two people in Scotland are reported to have mild symptoms of the disease and one person in Spain. Yes one person, in the whole of Spain. Hardly the epidemic or pandemic that the media are reporting.

After almost three months of virtually no rainfall, the outlook in the UK and most of Western Europe has turned wetter this week, which should undoubtedly help wheat and rapeseed crops here.

Paris May milling wheat closed down EUR2.00 at EUR139.50/tonne, London November feed wheat closed down GBP2.00 at GBP121.00/tonne.