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IKAR in Mass Media

Russian wheat prices fall following world markets

02 октября 2008 года

MOSCOW, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Russian wheat prices declined in the week leading up to Sept. 21 as international prices cooled and the market experienced logistical problems, analysts said.

Domestic buyers' activity decreased last week, said SovEcon agricultural analysts. Many big operators cut acquisition volumes substantially or lowered bid prices by several hundred roubles.

Offer prices followed suit, but the decline was limited as many sellers took a break to consider the new price levels.

Third-grade milling wheat price decreased by $1 to $236 per tonne in the south of Russia, fourth-grade wheat by $6 to $203 per tonne and feed wheat by $7 to $166 per tonne, the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) said.

SovEcon said average fourth-grade wheat prices fell by 100 roubles ($3.93) per tonne, third-grade by 50 roubles and fifth-grade feed wheat by 25 roubles.

Other grains markets were largely stable except for maize, which kept declining dynamically under the influence of the new harvest, it said.

Feed barley gained slightly, rising to $156 per tonne due to aggressive pre-export procurements, IKAR said.

SovEcon said the market had been negatively influenced by a shortage of railway cars and queues at the main southern Novorossiisk grain terminal, where some 1,500 cars with grain were reported to be waiting for unloading.

Many big Russian traders have been trying unsuccessfully to organise exports via Ukrainian ports filled with local grains.

According to preliminary estimates, as of Sept. 15, Russia has exported more than 4.6 million tonnes of grain, including 4.2 million tonnes of wheat since the 2008/09 crop year started on July 1, IKAR said.

SovEcon said exports between Sept. 1 and Sept. 9 were relatively low at 567,000, which may result in a decline of September exports from the 2.4 million tonnes in August.

Due to the absence of a strong willingness to sell on the part of sunseed producers, key crushers had to raise procurement prices slightly to 9,500 roubles from 8,500-9,000 roubles per tonne, IKAR said.

But the market in general remained relatively quiet, as there was no rush on the part of buyers due to a high harvest forecast.

SovEcon said rains in the south of Russia were delaying the harvesting.

But IKAR said that in spite of the rains and a certain delay in the harvesting campaign, it revised its crop forecast to 7.0-7.2 million tonnes, close to or slightly up from the previous estimate of 7.0 million.

The harvesting campaign is still at an early stage: by the end of last week farmers had harvested 1 million tonnes of sunseeds, approximately the same amount as a year ago, while the yields were 1.9 tonnes per hectare, up from 1.5 tonnes.

The crude sunseed oil price plunged to $26,000 per tonne, or to some $1,020, IKAR said. SovEcon said crude sunoil lost 1,250 roubles per tonne on the average last week.

White sugar prices have gained marginally, IKAR said. It expects a rise this week as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is expected to shortly sign a decree setting a higher seasonal raw sugar import duty.

Source: Reuters  |  #grain   |  Comments: 0   Views: 53

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