EU Grains Mostly Lower On The Day And For The Week
At the finish Jan 17 London wheat was down GBP0.30/tonne at GBP136.95/tonne, Dec 16 Paris wheat was down EUR0.25/tonne at EUR160.00/tonne, Jan 17 Paris corn ended EUR0.50/tonne lower at EUR163.50/tonne and Feb 17 Paris rapeseed closed EUR1.25/tonne easier at EUR409.75/tonne.
For the week that places London wheat GBP3.80/tonne lower, with Paris wheat down EUR8.25/tonne, corn off EUR3.00/tonne and rapeseed EUR8.00/tonne better.
Sterling was firmer against a weaker US dollar, and a particularly weak euro, pressuring London wheat.
This was the fifth week in a row that the pound has gained on the euro - it's best run in nine months as "hard-Brexit" fears eased a little. The euro is facing an uncertain time ahead, with a variety of European votes, polls and referendums to overcome against the backdrop of the constant fear of a growing "protest vote" in Europe, following the Brexit and Trump surprise successes.
The pound finished the day at a near 3-month euro high and a 2-month peak versus the US dollar.
FranceAgriMer reported that 22% of the French winter wheat crop is at the early tillering stage, down from 53% this time a year ago. Only 35% of their winter barley crop is at the same stage compared to 73% this time last year.
French winter wheat rated good to very good was 94%, unchanged from a week ago, but 3 points down on this time in 2015. Winter barley conditions were also unchanged at 92% (98% a year ago).
In the UK, "About 35% of the planted UK winter wheat area was drilled before the end of September, with the majority of the remaining crops drilled during October, with just small areas (about 5%) drilled during early November," said the HGCA.
"Winter barley crops were drilled in good time, with almost 80% of crops drilled by the end of September and the remainder drilled in early October," they added.
"While winter oilseed rape crops established well in the West of the UK, today’s Crop Development report by ADAS confirms that the same can’t be said for crops in the East. In eastern areas, particularly around Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridge, dry seedbeds meant that crops were often slow to emerge and establish. Oilseed rape crop failures were reported on a number of farms, particularly if cabbage stem flea beetle were active," they warned.
In other news, Ukraine said that their 2016 harvest was now 99% complete at 64.4 MMT. That includes a corn harvest that's 90% complete at 24.2 MMT currently.
Algeria were said to have bought at least 120,000 MT of durum wheat for Jan/Feb shipment in a tender. Tunisia are in the market for 109,000 MT of soft wheat and 50,000 MT of feed barley.
