IKAR in Mass Media

Russian wheat prices rise on strong export demand

19 августа 2013 года

MOSCOW, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Russian wheat export prices rose last week due to strong demand from customers concerned about unfavourable weather that has slowed the harvest, SovEcon agriculture analysts said on Monday.

Russia, one of the biggest wheat exporters, hopes to boost the crop by one-third to at least 50 million tonnes after last year's drought, and is increasing exports. It has harvested 36 million tonnes of wheat from 48 percent of its planted area.

Exports since the start of August were 50 percent higher than the same period in July, at 1.4 million tonnes including 1.2 million tonnes of wheat, official data showed.

"Active export demand supports rising prices," SovEcon analysts said in a note. Prices for wheat with an 11.5 percent protein content had risen $1-2 to $250-255 per tonne in deep-water ports on a free-on-board (FOB) basis at the end of last week.

Russian wheat prices followed European wheat prices and Chicago grain prices, which were supported by a lack of rainfall over the weekend to relieve U.S. Midwest corn and soybean crops.

November 2013 milling wheat on the Paris Euronext futures market rose 0.4 percent at 184.50 euros ($250) a tonne by 1435 GMT.

Russia is likely to increase its monthly wheat exports to at least 2.5 million tonnes in August and September after it shipped 2 million tonnes in July, SovEcon said last week.

Yet rains continue to slow Russia's grain harvest, adding risks for crops and prompting the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) to downgrade its 2013 forecast for a second time in a week.

IKAR lowered its 2013 forecast to 89.2 million tonnes from 89.7 million because the barley crop was smaller than previously expected. The wheat harvest forecast remained unchanged at 51.9 million tonnes.

As for oilseeds, domestic prices for new crop sunflower seeds, quoted at 12,000 roubles ($370) per tonne on a carriage-paid to (CPT) basis by some suppliers last week, were expected to decline soon as new harvest is approaching the market, SovEcon said.

Export prices for crude sunflower oil were flat at $850 a tonne on a FOB basis, according to SovEcon, while IKAR quoted domestic crude sunoil prices up $10 at $840 per tonne.

The wet weather also continued to delay Russia's sugar beet harvest also, boosting South Russian white sugar prices to $742 per tonne from $729, IKAR said.

($1 = 32.8635 Russian roubles)
($1 = 0.7500 euros)

Source: Reuters | #grain | Comments: 0 Views: 65

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