EU Grains End Mostly Higher With Egypt Back In The Market

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 08:35 | Categorized as

22/09/16 -- EU grains closed mostly higher.

The day ended with Nov 16 London wheat up GBP1.05/tonne at GBP126.55/tonne, Dec 16 Paris wheat was up EUR0.50/tonne at EUR162.00/tonne, Nov 16 corn was unchanged at EUR162.00/tonne and Nov 16 Paris rapeseed was up EUR3.75/tonne to EUR379.75/tonne matching the best close on a front month since Jun 13.

Heavy rain in the past week, following almost three months of dryness, will allow planting of winter rapeseed to begin in France. Even so, hopes of increasing sowings from last year's 1.5 million ha may now be dashed, according to media reports.

Rain has also arrived in Ukraine to aid winter grain plantings there. More rain is in the forecast in the week ahead. "Yesterday, rains hit the north half of the country, even if they were light they are offering some relief to a situation becoming critical," said Agritel.

Back in France, the late summer drought appears to have harmed corn production, with early harvested yields said to be disappointing.

Bulgarian wheat has arrived in Dunkirk this week to feed the French starch producing industry. FranceAgriMer has French wheat imports at 700 TMT this season, although private estimates are 1 MMT or more (433 TMT in 2015/16).

Egypt's GASC are back in the market for wheat. "Doubts over Egypt’s ability to meet requirements for its bread subsidy scheme is potentially behind the change in ergot tolerance levels," said the HGCA.

"Each year Egypt’s import requirements are about 7% of total global imports," they added. Their absence from the market therefore upsets the global balance sheet.

Four sellers emerged with offers prepared to accept Egypt's terms, although it's unclear yet if any were successful.

Ukraine said that it had agreed "informal" limits on grain exports with shippers. These have been set at 16.5 MMT for wheat and 5.6 MMT for barley.

Morocco said that it had bought 310,000 MT of EU soft wheat under a preferential tariff agreement.

Brussels confirmed that they'd released 452,000 MT worth of soft wheat export licences, taking the volume granted so far this season to almost 25% higher than a year ago.

France is unusually only third behind Romania and Germany in the table of countries granted the most exports.