EU Grains Close

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 19:22 | Categorized as

11/04/11 -- EU grains closed with May London wheat up GBP2.75/tonne to GBP209.50/tonne and with new crop Nov climbing GBP0.50 to GBP170.00/tonne. May Paris wheat rose EUR1.00/tonne to EUR248.25/tonne and Nov was up EUR2.25/tonne at EUR217.25/tonne.

It was interesting to see old crop gain on new in London and the opposite happen in Paris. At home, competition within the feed sector from other raw materials makes UK wheat look very expensive indeed.

Summer (May/Sep) wheatfeed pellets ex Manchester traded today at GBP135.00/tonne, placing them at around GBP140.00/tonne delivered into Cheshire. A comparable price for feed wheat on today's market would be over GBP200.00/tonne, even with a couple of new crop months included. Wheat is clearly pricing itself out of the ration at this sort of money.

Spain and Italy have had much better rains than normal over the early part of 2011, giving them potential to deliver a very decent wheat crop this year. Things have not been so rosy further north, with varying degrees of "drought" in France, Germany and the UK.

"Scattered showers are expected this week, although no heavy rain is in the forecast for very dry areas," according to Martell Crop Projections.

Some rain arrived over the weekend for parched areas of the US HRW wheat belt, although they may have come too late to be of great benefit.

Australian conditions are looking very promising in eastern states. Good post-planting rains in Western Australia could signal a record harvest, unfortunately there is no sign of these in current weather forecasts ahead of sowing commencing in May.

Ample supplies of old crop feed wheat continue to see Australian wheat remain very aggressively priced into Asian markets.