EU Grains Mostly Lower On The Day And For The Week

09/09/16 -- EU grains closed mostly lower to end the week, and with only rapeseed finishing the week a net gainer.

The day ended with Nov 16 London wheat down GBP0.65/tonne at GBP121.35/tonne, Sep 16 Paris wheat was down EUR1.50/tonne at EUR143.75/tonne, Nov 16 corn fell EUR0.50/tonne to EUR160.75tonne and Nov 16 Paris rapeseed was up EUR1.25/tonne to EUR378.25/tonne.

For the week, London wheat was down GBP1.40/tonne, nearby Paris wheat slumped EUR18.75/tonne, corn was EUR1.75/tonne easier and rapeseed was up EUR1.25/tonne.

French crop conditions continue to fall off a cliff, with corn good to very good ratings down another 5 points to 55% this week, according to FranceAgriMer.

Media reports suggest that Egypt has rejected a cargo of Russian wheat on the grounds of ergot contamination (they'd already refused a cargo of Romanian wheat last week), and have placed Russian and Ukraine origin grain on the "high alert" list.

The Russian harvest rumbles on regardless, and has now reached 98.6 MMT off 76.3% of the planned area. Wheat accounts for 68.1 MMT of this total off 80.8% of plan, and barley an additional 17.8 MMT (89.3%). The Russian corn harvest has now reached 4.5% complete (653 TMT). Autumn planting for the 2017 harvest is 33.4% done.

The USDA's FAS in Russia raised their estimate for the total grain harvest to 114.5 MMT, including 72 MMT of wheat, a post Soviet-era record. Exports in 2016/17 were placed at a record 37 MMT including 28 MMT of wheat (25.5 MMT in 2015/16).

Ukraine said that they'd harvested 38.8 MMT of grains so far (off 70% of total planned area), with new crop corn accounting for 316 TMT (2%) of that total.

Winter rapeseed planting in Ukraine is now 86% done.

Agrimoney report that UK wheat exports topped 200,000 MT for the first month of 2016/17 (July), a 150% increase on the same period last season. The weakness of post-Brexit vote sterling will certainly be helping that cause.

Algeria were reported to have purchased 100,000 MT of feed barley for October shipment circa $165-170/tonne C&F.