French Crop Conditions Fall
29/04/16 -- EU grains closed mixed. with front month May 16 London wheat up GBP0.35/tonne at GBP106.95/tonne, May 16 Paris wheat was EUR1.50/tonne lower at EUR151.50/tonne, Jun 16 corn was down EUR2.00/tonne to EUR163.00/tonne and Aug also 16 rapeseed tumbled EUR2.00/tonne at EUR365.25/tonne.
London wheat is closed on Monday for the May Day Celebrations, and some other markets, like Russia, will also be shut too.
France and Chicago will be open as normal.
Russia said Friday night that spring grain plantings there were well advanced comapred to normal at 21.3% done on 6.6 million ha. That includes 954k ha of spring wheat (versus 561k ha) a year ago; 3.1 milion ha (2.5m ha) of spring barley; and 1.3 million ha of corn (986k ha).
FranceAgriMer today cut French winter wheat good to very good conditions by 4 points from last week to 88% (91% last year). They were down 3 points on winter barley too, at 87% versus 90% this time last year. Spring barley good to very good was unchanged at 04% (down from 95% this time a year ago). There's nothing to get too worried about here just yet, these numbers are still historically quite high.
Traditionally early parts of the French winter wheat crop have begun heading, with the crop nationally 1% headed at this early stage - the same as a year ago.
Winter barley is 4% headed nationwide versus 11 % a year ago. Early corn planting is 27% complete against 11% a week ago and 68% a year ago at this time.
"Combined UK wheat and barley exports hit the highest monthly level since November 2011 in February, aided partially by currency movements," noted the HGCA.
"Since the end of December and moving into 2016, sterling has weakened considerably against a number of currencies, including the euro and the US dollar. This has aided UK cereals price competitiveness and helped boost exports over the past few months. Furthermore, in February, combined wheat and barley exports totalled 512.5Kt, the highest combined level since November 2011," they added.
