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IKAR in Mass Media

Russian wheat prices steady, supported by quality concerns

09 сентября 2013 года

MOSCOW, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Russian wheat export prices were stable last week, supported by a lack of high-quality wheat and farmers' intention to hold onto stocks until possible future price rises, SovEcon agricultural analysts said in a note on Monday.

Russia, one of the world's key wheat exporters, is expected to increase its 2013 wheat harvest by one third to 50 million tonnes after last year's drought and has already harvested 41 million tonnes from 60 percent of the sown area.

The crop, however, is coming in with lower protein and gluten content than last year, making it harder for traders to find wheat for Russia's traditional customers in North Africa and Middle East at competitive prices.

"It is likely that for the recent tenders exporters will supply wheat from their stocks created in August when the market was near the season's bottom," SovEcon said.

"For the later date supplies (traders) would need to buy grain in areas remote from export terminals, which will be accompanied by export price increases and stronger competition with other wheat suppliers in the Black Sea."

The price for wheat with 11.5-percent protein content was flat at $248-$252 per tonne in the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk on a free-on-board (FOB) basis last week, SovEcon said. In shallow-water ports it was down $3 at $228-232 per tonne.

Benchmark November milling wheat on the Paris futures market was 0.9 percent lower at 187.00 euros ($250) a tonne.

Russia, officially expected to export between 18 million and 20 million tonnes of grain in 2013/14, may ship less on the back of weak demand and competition from other suppliers, the agriculture ministry said last week.

In this case, to take extra grain from the domestic market, the ministry plans to use its restocking programme, under which it can buy up to 6 million tonnes from farmers this year.

During the first two months of 2013/14 marketing season, which started on July 1, Russia has exported 6.0 million tonnes of grain, including pulses and 5.1 million tonnes of wheat, the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) said.

Meanwhile, domestic prices for new crop sunflower seeds continued to decline and were quoted at 10,000-12,000 roubles ($300-$360) per tonne last week, down from 11,000-12,000 roubles per tonne on a carriage-paid to (CPT) basis in North Caucasus region, SovEcon said.

IKAR pegged prices at 11,090 roubles per tonne, down from 11,130.

Export prices for sunflower oil also fell $2 to $862 per tonne, according to IKAR, and were quoted at $860-870 per tonne on a FOB basis in the Black Sea by SovEcon.

South Russian white sugar prices also fell by 800 roubles to 23,300 roubles per tonne, IKAR added.

($1 = 33.1068 Russian roubles)
($1 = 0.7546 euros)

Source: Reuters  |  #grain   |  Comments: 0   Views: 59

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