US figures pressure grain and oilseed markets

Grain markets remain under pressure as a higher Brazilian maize crop and lower US animal feeds use are forecast.

The November London feed wheat futures contract briefly dipped to £129.25/t on Monday (14 July), the lowest point for any London feed wheat futures contract for four years.

This followed the US Department of Agriculture’s latest release which raised the US soya bean harvest by 4.5% on the previous estimate and increased the US wheat production outlook.

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Expectations for end-of-season world corn and soya bean stocks for 2014-15 also rose, by 3%, and the wheat stock forecast was also increased slightly.

However there are reports of flooding in Canada damaging 10-20% of rapeseed and wheat crops, while lack of rain in India could lead to damaging drought, said the HGCA.

“Sentiment towards global crop production remains positive with the downward trend continuing in prices. Last week, the European Commission projected that the EU wheat crop would increase by 1.9% from 2013-14 to 139m tonnes, which is 7% above the five-year average,” said its Market Report on Monday.

The UK oilseed rape crop is being further pressured by the continued strength of sterling and a good crop outlook. Analyst Oil World raised its EU-28 production forecast for 2014 to a record 22.7m tonnes, an increase of 1.5m tonnes on last year.