IKAR in Mass Media

Russian wheat export prices edge up despite weaker ruble

05 июля 2023 года

Russian wheat export prices rose slightly last week amid continued strong demand from importers and despite rouble devaluation, analysts said.

The price of Russia’s new wheat crop with 12.5% protein content, delivered free on board (FOB) from the Black Sea late July-early August, was assessed at the end of last week at $232 a tonne, up from $231 a tonne the previous week by the IKAR agriculture consultancy.

A weaker rouble usually drives down wheat prices, but the balance on world markets pushed prices higher, said Dmitry Rylko, head of the agency.

The Russian currency lost more than 10% against the dollar in June and more than 15% in the second quarter as a whole. Instability in the final week of June caused a sharp increase in demand for safe assets.

The Russia-focused agricultural consultancy Sovecon raised the estimate for total Russian wheat exports in June by 300,000 tonnes to 3.5 million tonnes – a record high for the month, compared to 1.0 million tonnes in June 2022 and 1.4 million tonnes on average.

Russia exported 920,000 tonnes of grain last week compared to 1.0 million tonnes a week earlier, including 750,000 tonnes of wheat compared to 970,000 tonnes a week earlier, Sovecon wrote in its weekly note, citing port data.

Last week Russian Ministry of Agriculture reported the end of the sowing campaign.

The harvesting campaign has started in the south. As of June 29, farmers had harvested 2.4 million tonnes of grain in bunker weight compared to 1.2 million tonnes in 2022, with average yields of 3.98 tonnes per hectar (4.12 tonnes per hectar). Sovecon said.

The weather models predict mostly dry weather in the South that will speed up the harvest, the agency noted.

Source: Reuters | #grain | Comments: 0 Views: 12

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