EU Grains Mixed As Egypt Devalues

14/03/16 -- EU grains closed mixed, with Paris rapeseed slightly easier, and everything else up a tad.

At the close of trading, Mar 16 London wheat was up GBP0.15/tonne at GBP101.45/tonne. In Paris, May 16 wheat closed EUR1.50/tonne higher at EUR1456.25/tonne, Jun 16 corn was up EUR1.75/tonne at EUR155.258/tonne and May 16 rapeseed was down EUR0.50/tonne to EUR354.25/tonne.

It was a dull start to what promises to be a dull week, with only the fact that it's Cheltenham week breaking through the gloom. That at least would be good news if you were a betting man, but hey, you're most likely a farmer/trader/merchant/shipper or a crusher if you're reading this, so I'm guessing that you probably are.

Of course, that's no use unless we've got a tip lined up, preferably one to take on the Oirish at their own game and a decent enough price to make it worth raiding the piggy bank. We do, although the only bit of bad news is that we've gt to wait until Friday for it to run. But if you're a farmer/trader/merchant/shipper or a crusher then you must have patience too I assume, so stay tuned.

Back to the fundamentals, if you can find them. Ukraine spring grains are 12% planted on 320k ha. Most of that is barley (252k ha). The Ag Ministry there don't report on later spring grains, mostly corn, plantings yet. Fertliser applications have been completed on 76% of winter grains and 72% of winter OSR.

In Russia, early spring grain plantings are complete on 614k ha, or just 1.2% of plan.

Russian seaports exported 543 TMT worth of grains last week, down from 597 TMT the previous week. Last week's total included 357 TMT of wheat, 157 TNT of corn and 39 TMT of barley. Turkey (86.5 TMT), South Korea (57.8 TMT) and Jordan (53.6 TMT) were the main importers.

Ukraine's exports via seaports fell to 532 TMT from 776 TMT the previous week. Wheat accounted for 117.3 TMT of that total, and corn a further 414.6 TMT.

Greece (108.3 TMT), Spain (53.8 TMT) and Egypt (43.9 TMT) were the main importing nations.

Jordan announced a tender for 100,000 MT of optional origin hard wheat for Sep/Oct shipment. Morocco are tendering for 149.5 TMT worth of optional or domestic origin feed barley

Bloomberg reported that Egypt was devaluing its currency by almost 13%, which should cheapen wheat imports still further.