EU Grains Report - Friday

08/04/16 -- EU grains closed mixed on the day and little altered for the week.

At the finish May 16 London wheat was GBP0.15/tonne lower at GBP106.15/tonne. May 16 Paris wheat gained EUR1.00/tonne to EUR154.25/tonne, corn fell EUR0.25/tonne to EUR155.00/tonne and rapeseed closed a euro higher at EUR368.25/tonne.

For the week there was little significant change, with London wheat up GBP0.15/tonne, Paris wheat down GBP4.75/tonne, corn EUR2.25/tonne easier and rapeseed unchanged.

Brussels reported soft wheat export licence requests of only 467.2 MMT this week - than than the volume granted for corn imports (448.4 TMT). The wheat export licence number was a disappointment being a 14-week low. Cumulative soft wheat licences for the season are around 12% down on a year ago at 22.6 MMT.

Barley export licences were granted for 92,000 MT - similar to a week ago. YTD barley export licences are up 17% at 8.1 MMT.

After only buying just the one cargo in yesterday's GASC tender the Egyptian Interior Ministry warned that corruption in the wheat sector was rampant and must be tackled, Reuters said.

They will now be harvesting their 2016/17 wheat crop, and the government pay among the highest prices in the world for home-produced wheat in an effort to stimulate production. The temptation is large to pass off much cheaper imported wheat as domestically produced therefore.

Algeria were said to have bought at least 400,000 MT of milling wheat in a tender for a nominal 50,000 MT. They frequently purchase much more than the tender amount, with French wheat placed will to have likely taken a majority share of that business

Morocco bought 360,000 MT of EU origin wheat and 12,000 MT of durum for Apr/May shipment.

Customs data shows France exporting 1.8 MMT of wheat in Feb, of which 1.1 MMT went to non-EU destinations. The largest such taker was Morocco (362,000 MT) followed by Algeria (305,000 MT).

Jul/Feb French wheat exports are thus 11.4 MMT (-5%), with 6.8 MMT (+2%) of that going outside the Union.

FranceAgriMer reported French winter wheat crop conditions unchanged on a week ago at 92% good/very good. Winter barley conditions were also unchanged in the top two categories at 91% good to very good.

The proportion of French wheat displaying an ear of at least 1cm is now 94% versus 80% a week ago and 85% this time last year. Barley at that stage is 96% versus 85% a week ago and 93% last year.

For spring barley, emergence was placed at 59%, up from 24% a week ago, but still below 88% in 2015. Spring corn planting was seen as just 1% done nationally as of Monday night