EU Grains Mostly Higher In Quiet Trade
23/12/13 -- EU grains closed mostly modestly higher heading into the year end. Jan 14 London wheat was up GBP0.30/tonne to GBP165.00/tonne, Jan 14 Paris wheat was EUR0.50/tonne firmer at EUR211.25/tonne, Jan 14 Paris corn was EUR0.25/tonne steadier at EUR173.50/tonne and Feb 14 Paris rapeseed rose EUR0.75/tonne to EUR369.25/tonne.
As you might expect, fresh news was thin on the ground for a holiday shortened Christmas week.
The Russian Ministry said that the wheat and barley harvest there was finally over, and that the corn harvest is now entering it's final leg at 95.7% complete.
They say that the wheat harvest finished at 54.4 MMT in bunker weight versus 39.7 MMT a year ago. The barley harvest amounts to 16.3 MMT versus 14.7 MMT in 2012. They've cut 11.9 MMT of corn so far versus 8.3 MMT this time last year.
Overall that gives Russia a net grain harvest of 96.9 MMT, up 29% on last year.
The Ministry are officially forecasting a 2014 grain harvest of 88090 MMT in clean weight. Last year's cleaned total was 4.5% below the bunker weight volume of 75.1 MMT. A similar percentage cut this year would indicate a clean weight harvest of around 92.5 MMT.
On the export front, Russia has shipped out 1.1 MMT of grains so far this month (to Dec 18), including 668 TMT of wheat, 311 TMT of corn and 122 TMT of barley.
Exports for the 2013/14 marketing year to date are now just over 15 MMT, an increase of 18.7% on this time a year ago.
Ukraine meanwhile have exported 1.05 MMT in the week through to Sunday, including 797 TMT of corn, 227 TMT of wheat and 25 TMT of corn.
They exported a record 3.3 MMT of corn in November, more than double the 1.5 MMT shipped out in November 2012 and over 250% the amount exported in October. Egypt was the main export home last month (taking 0.7 MMT), followed by Spain (0.5 MMT).
