Market Titbits

China only managed to offload 15,500 MT today of the half million tonnes on offer at it's weekly soybean auction. To date of the 4 MMT offered they've sold less than 85,000 MT.

Egypt bought 240,000 MT of all Russian wheat in this week's tender. Bunge, Dreyfus, Valars and Venus all sold at $166 FOB, that was a dollar more than the cheapest FOB offer of US wheat (but beating in on freight), $1.75 under the best Canadian offer and $3.50 cheaper than French wheat.

Soybean planting in Brazil's Mato Grosso will get underway in ideal conditions, with Sept 15th marking the end of the mandatory Asian rust no plant period.

India's monsoon rains are 21% down to date as the rainy season draws to a close. There is no sign of the government releasing any state-owned wheat stocks onto the market yet, despite this being talked about for weeks. There is also talk of stock limits being introduced on wheat held in private hands, as with sugar, but nothing has happened yet.

Ukraine has harvested 37.68 MMT of grains so far this harvest. The Agriculture Minister there recently increased his estimate of the size of this season's crop from 42-43 MMT to 45 MMT. As of Sept. 1st the country held 25.9 MMT of grain stocks, down slightly on last year.

South Korea are shopping for 110,000 MT of US corn, Japan is expected to buy 117,000 MT of mostly US wheat and Algeria are rumoured to have bought 300,000 MT of French wheat.