EU Grains Close

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 18:56 | Categorized as

23/05/11 -- EU grains ended mixed. Expiring May London wheat went off the board unchanged at GBP205.00/tonne with new crop Nov closing down GBP0.50 to GBP193.50/tonne. Nov Paris wheat fell EUR0.25/tonne to EUR244.50/tonne whilst May12 was EUR2.75/tonne lower to EUR245.00/tonne.

Wheat traded both sides, opening higher but falling later in the day as crude oil declined, dragging US grains with it.

Paris corn and rapeseed futures managed to hang onto early gains, with corn up around EUR2-3.00/tonne at the close and rapeseed showing gains of around EUR3-4.00/tonne.

Concerns over European sovereign debt are never far away, with Italy and Greece taking centre stage today, that saw the euro fall to 2 month lows against both the pound and US dollar.

In the UK weekend rains were good in the north and west, but a bit more disappointing the further east and south you went. The British breadbasket that is East Anglia got only one or two millimeters at best.

Some further light rains may penetrate that far later in the week, with chances too for northern France and Germany by midweek and beyond.

Things are particularly bad for spring sown grains, many of which have hardly seen any rain at all since the day that they were planted. One farmer emailed me this morning to say that some of his fellows were talking about spring barley not even having enough moisture to come into ear this season.

The USDA will report tonight on US winter wheat crop conditions, currently standing at 44% poor/very poor as of May 15th compared to just 8% a year previously. In Kansas, the top HRW wheat producing state which grows almost a quarter of all US winter wheat, 55% of the crop was rated poor/very poor.

Meanwhile US spring wheat plantings further north have the opposite problem, being dogged by excessive field moisture. North Dakota, the leading producing state, was only 15% planted last Monday compared to 68% normally.