EU Grains Mixed Again, Fresh News Lacking

14/09/16 -- EU grains closed mixed on another day lacking in fresh stimulative news.

The day ended with Nov 16 London wheat down GBP0.15/tonne at GBP122.25/tonne, Dec 16 Paris wheat was up EUR0.50/tonne at EUR159.25/tonne, Nov 16 corn rose EUR0.25/tonne to EUR160.25/tonne and Nov 16 Paris rapeseed was down EUR3.00/tonne to EUR368.50/tonne.

FranceAgriMer released their latest figures on production, exports and stocks, pegging the 2016 French wheat crop at a 33-year low of 28.47 MMT, down 30.3% on last year. They see exports falling 43.4% in the 2016/17 season to 11.90 MMT (intra-EU 6.59 MMT, -15.6%; outside-EU 4.70 MMT, -61.8%) and ending stocks declining 26.3% to 2.23 MMT.

Barley production is seen down 20% at 10.1 MMT, with exports falling 36.4% to 4.89 MMT and ending stocks rising 22.7% to 1.46 MMT.

Corn production is forecast at 12.2 MMT, exports at 5.29 MMT and ending stocks at 2.04 MMT.

In other news, the Russian harvest is now said to have reached 102.8 MMT off 80.9% of the planned area. Wheat accounts for 70.5 MMT of that (86.3% harvested), barley 18.1 MMT (91.7%) and corn 1.6 MMT (10.1%).

Russian plantings for the 2017 harvest are approaching halfway done (47.7% complete) on 8.3 million ha (7.4 million this time a year ago).

Rapeseed is doing it's best to resist the downwards pull of Chicago soybeans, but struggling.

"Helping rapeseed prices resist the magnitude of the downward pull is the news that Malaysian palm oil stocks have sunk to their lowest level in six years as output struggles to recover from the recent El Nino and exports soar," said the HGCA.

Production in Europe this year is only now forecast at 20 MMT (USDA Monday), the lowest since 2008/09 and versus 22.2 MMT a year ago and projected consumption of 23.9 MMT.