IKAR in Mass Media

Russia's loss of an Egyptian tender

03 декабря 2013 года

MOSCOW, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Russia's loss of an Egyptian tender did not prevent a further strengthening of export prices for Russian wheat last week with a weak rouble providing additional support, analysts said on Monday.

Prices in Russia have been pushed up this season by a lack of high quality wheat, government plans to replenish state stocks after last year's drought and delayed harvesting.

Prices for Russian wheat with 12.5 percent protein content strengthened $2 to $290 a tonne in the Black Sea on a free-on-board (FOB) basis compared with a week earlier, the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) said.

In November traders said Russian farmers, defaulting on forward sales in the hope of obtaining higher prices, had priced their wheat out of world markets.

Last week Russia lost a tender in Egypt, where the state buyer of the world's biggest importer of wheat bought 60,000 tonnes of French wheat.

"Despite losing Egypt's GASC import tender, Russia's wheat export prices did not drop, but rather slightly strengthened," IKAR said in a note.

SovEcon agricultural analysts said the rouble at its lowest against the dollar since August was providing additional support to prices.

On Monday Agriculture Minister Nikolay Fyodorov kept the estimate for the 2013/14 exportable surplus of grain at 20 million tonnes, but lowered the estimate for wheat to 14 million tonnes from 15 million tonnes.

Russia does not plan to change its interventions on the grain market in the near future, the minister added.

Last week Russia's intervention grain purchases in the 2013/14 season reached 399,000 tonnes, IKAR said.

Prices for sunflower seeds rose 425 roubles to 10,125 roubles ($280) per tonne last week, according to SovEcon.

IKAR's sunseed price index rose to 10,410 roubles from 10,180.

Export prices for sunflower oil were little-changed at around $890-900 a tonne on a FOB basis in the Black Sea, SovEcon added, while IKAR quoted the export crude sunoil price at $847 a tonne, down from $860.

Sugar on the Krasnodar price index strengthened 100 roubles to 22,400 roubles per tonne, IKAR said.

Source: Reuters | #grain | Comments: 0 Views: 67

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