Green Pound devaluation in next two weeks?

By FWi Staff

THE Green Pound narrowly missed a devaluation towards the end of last week, but is still on course for a drop within the next fortnight.

Had the Pound been one Pfennig weaker on Friday, it would have triggered a devaluation from yesterday (Monday, 21 September), says the Home-Grown Cereals Authority.

To qualify for devaluation, the Green Pound exchange rate would have to be more then 2% lower than the market exchange rate over a 10-day period. The gap has reached over 1.9% in recent days, and the exchange rate was promising at the start of today (Tuesday) at DM 2.837.

		Farmers would have benefited by about 80p/t for intervention barley if the devaluation had been triggered. However, there is still time for a devaluation to occur before intervention stores open in November. A new 10-day monitoring period started yesterday, with a weaker Pound at the start of this period at DM2.83. The HGCA is confident that, if Sterling does not strengthen, there could well be a devaluation by the end of the month.
Near miss: The Green Pound gap almost reached 2% this week (Source: HGCA)