French Wheat Below Milling And Export Standard
The day ended with Nov 16 London up GBP0.50/tonne at GBP122.75/tonne, Dec 16 Paris wheat was down EUR0.50/tonne at EUR158.75/tonne, Nov 16 corn was down EUR0.25/tonne at EUR160.00/tonne and Nov 16 rapeseed rose EUR3.25/tonne to EUR371.75/tonne.
FranceAgriMer said that the average specific weight on this year's French wheat crop was 73 kg/hl, below the minimum requirement for flour making and well below export standard.
This suggests that "French millers will be looking for wheat outside of domestic supplies," said the HGCA.
They also point out that "France usually accounts for around 25% of total EU wheat production and is the main EU exporter, accounting for nearly a third of the EU’s wheat exports," placing the 2016/17 marketing campaign in a new light entirely.
Strategie Grains cast a further shadow over the entire EU crop, saying that 41% of this year's wheat is only of feed standard, up 7 points from last month's estimate and versus 29% a year ago.
They also cut their forecast for the EU-28 soft wheat crop by 1.4 MMT from a month ago to 136.5 MMT, a 10% reduction on last year. Exports in 2016/17 are seen at 23.7 MMT, down 8 MMT% (-25%) from last season.
They estimated this year's EU-28 corn crop at 59.3 MMT, down 1.3 MMT on previously.
Russia officially reduced the export duty on wheat to zero today. Their harvest currently stands at 103.2 MMT off 81.4% of the planned area. Wheat accounts for 70.8 MMT of that total off 86.9% of plan.
Brussels confirmed 371 TMT worth of EU soft wheat export licences had been issued this past week, with France picking up over 105 TMT worth. The season to date total is now 5.4 MMT.
APK Inform estimated Ukraine's 2016 corn crop at 26.23 MMT versus 23.6 MMT a year ago. They see 2016/17 exports at 17.5 MMT.