Tight but nervous grain market

Grain prices continue to fluctuate on global economic news, but remain underpinned by tight supply and demand.

Feed wheat values slipped slightly in the week to Wednesday (7 September), to about £162/t ex-farm, with milling wheat premiums narrowing to about £17/t due to the good quality UK harvest. “There is no real clear trend; with the vagaries of currency and economics, the markets are relatively nervous, but are perhaps becoming more comfortable with current levels,” said Simon Ingle, grain trader at Openfield.

“The US Department of Agriculture report comes out on Monday (12 September) and it’s hard to see that they will do anything but cut corn output – it just depends by how much.”

UK export trade, despite getting off to a slow start in July, picked up in August and looked strong this month, he added. “Russia is the cheapest source of wheat, but is hamstrung logistically – and Ukraine doesn’t seem to be doing much about its export taxes.”

Domestic consumers were buying little, but would have to come to the market soon as farmers were well sold. “Consumers have been waiting for prices to drop, but it’s not going their way and the market looks fairly well underpinned.”

market report