IKAR in Mass Media

Russia's wheat prices rise as harvest and sowing delayed

14 октября 2013 года

MOSCOW, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Russia's wheat export prices continued to rise last week as better weather did little to speed up harvest and sowing schedules, set back by rain earlier in the autumn, analysts said on Monday.

Unfavourable conditions for harvesting in Siberia prompted two leading agricultural analysts to cut their forecasts for Russia's 2013 grain crop last week.

The country, expected to be the world's fifth-largest wheat exporter in 2013/14, is also forecast to decrease the area it sows for winter grains this year.

"Despite certain improvements in the weather, the harvesting of late grains and the sowing of winter grains is still stalled," SovEcon agriculture analysts said in a note.

Dry weather was expected to speed up the sowing of winter wheat in Russia's southern regions over the last five days, but the agriculture ministry has yet to show this has happened. New data is due on Monday evening.

Russia's export prices for wheat with 11.5 percent protein content rose $5 to $260-265 per tonne on a free-on-board (FOB) basis in deepwater ports last week compared with a week earlier, according to SovEcon.

Prices for wheat with 12.5 percent protein content rose to $270 per tonne last week from $263 a week earlier in the Black Sea on a FOB basis, the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) said.

Russia is officially expected to export about 15 million tonnes of wheat this 2013/14 marketing year, of which 7.9 million tonnes had already been exported between the start of the season on July 1 and till Oct. 10, according to IKAR.

Alongside weather factors, Russian grain prices are supported by an expected government restocking campaign, which is set to start in Siberia after several delays on Oct. 15.

The government aims to buy up to 6 million tonnes of grain for the 2013/14 marketing year, of which up to 3 million tonnes are to be bought by the end of December.

Domestic prices for sunflower seeds were down 550 roubles at 10,525 roubles ($330) per tonne last week, SovEcon said. IKAR said its price index was down 225 roubles to 10,575 roubles.

Export prices for sunflower oil were flat at $870-880 a tonne on an FOB basis in the Black Sea, SovEcon added, while IKAR quoted the export crude sunoil price also flat at $865 a tonne.

As for sugar, the Krasnodar price index was up 100 roubles to 22,600 roubles per tonne, IKAR said.

($1 = 32.2887 Russian roubles)

Source: Reuters | #grain | Comments: 0 Views: 125

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