Wheat firm on tight UK market and export demand
Grain markets remained supported to the end of the week on strong EU exports and speculation that the Black Sea countries may not be such strong wheat exporters this season.
The UK outlook is for a relatively tight market with a high proportion going into flour milling and the North and Scotland relatively short of wheat.
Slow drilling progress in Russia is also a factor, while analyst Strategie Grains has cut its estimate of EU-28 soft wheat production slightly to 135.2m tonnes although this still 8% higher than the 2012 crop.
Feed wheat futures for November 2013 were at £164.05/t by mid-afternoon on Friday (18 October) while November 2014 was at £157/t.
US wheat continued to firm on crop concerns, delayed plantings and strong export demand, noted Gleadell in its market report. HMRC figures show that UK wheat imports have slowed thanks to the better quality of the 2013 crop.
The domestic oilseed rape market has also firmed on crusher buying, strong UK meal demand and a firmer euro, giving an ex-farm price of £300/t spot in all regions positions, said Gleadell trading manager Jonathan Lane. This has encouraged some farmer selling to UK crushers while the export market is relatively quiet.
Grain price rise could be short term