Milling wheat premiums rise on New Year demand
Milling wheat premiums have widened over the past week, buoyed by stronger buying demand in the New Year.
Group one varieties were pegged at about £177.50/t ex-farm, almost an £18 premium to feed wheat and leaving feed barley trailing behind at about £134.50/t. “However, this lift is unlikely to be long-lasting, given the overall quality and usability of the UK crop and the high level of imports to date,” said David Sheppard, managing director of Gleadell Agriculture.
“The UK feed market seems to be already in the pre-festive lull as farmer selling remains limited, although domestic demand is far from robust.” DEFRA’s first official estimate of UK supply and demand put feed wheat consumption 14% lower than 2012-13, as the price premium to corn, barley and oats made the latter attractive options for feed in some areas, he added.
“A recent brief spell of active end-user buying was mainly due to delayed corn shipments (from France), leaving end-users with plentiful wheat supplies for the rest of 2013.”
Meanwhile, the International Grains Council has cut its latest estimate of global wheat production for 2014-15, from 225m ha to 222.9m ha. However, that would still be 1.4% higher than this year.