EU Grains Mostly Lower To Start The Week

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 09:39 | Categorized as

02/03/15 -- EU grains closed mostly lower on the day, although Mar 15 London wheat was up GBP0.15/tonne at GBP116.95/tonne, Mar 15 Paris wheat was down EUR2.75/tonne at EUR184.75/tonne, Mar 15 Paris corn fell EUR1.25/tonne to EUR148.25/tonne and May 15 Paris rapeseed was down EUR3.00/tonne at EUR362.25/tonne.

Fresh news was generally lacking to start the week.

Ukraine seaports exported 459.2 TMT of grains last week, down from 587.6 TMT the previous week, according to APK Inform. Last week's total included 125.3 TMT of wheat and 333.9 TMT of corn.

Exports for the season so far are now 24.3 MMT, of which 9.2 MMT is wheat. 3.9 MMT is barley and 10.9 MMT is corn. This time a year ago shipments were around 24 MMT, including 7.3 MMT of wheat, 2.1 MMT of barley and 14.2 MMT of corn.

Russia has exported a similar volume to Ukraine so far this year (24.2 MMT), including 18.8 MMT of wheat, 3.7 MMT of barley and 1.4 MMT of corn.

The weather in southern Russia and Ukraine is said to be turning warmer and wetter, which should enable a better assessment to be made of winter sown grain crop conditions and aid spring fieldwork.

The Ukraine Ministry said hat fertiliser applications had been completed on around 2 million ha of winter crops, out of a planted area of almost 9 million ha. Crop conditions remain at 82% good to satisfactory and 18% poor, they said.

UkrAgroConsult said that Ukraine's 2015 barley crop could fall to 7.0 MMT versus 9.0 MMT in 2014.

The Russian newspaper "Vedomosti" said that the average Russian will spend 50-55% of their household income on food by the end of 2015, up from 36-40% at the end of 2014.

Oil World estimated global rapeseed production at 69.1 MMT in 2014/15, up from a previous forecast of 68.5 MMT, but down from 70.2 MMT the year before. World rapeseed usage this season is seen at 66.9 MMT.