Russian wheat export prices down with global benchmarks

Russian wheat export prices fell slightly last week following a decline in wheat in Chicago Wv1 and Paris BL2H3 amid a record harvest in Russia and active supplies from the Black Sea, analysts said on Monday.

Prices for Russian wheat with 12.5% protein content and for supply from Black Sea ports in late December-early January were at $315 a tonne free on board (FOB) on Friday evening, down $2 from a week earlier, the IKAR agriculture consultancy said in a note.

Russia continues to export wheat relatively fast for this time of the season with 1 million tonnes of grain exported last week, another consultancy Sovecon said, citing port data.

Wheat prices for immediate delivery fell by $1 to $314-318 per tonne, it added.

Russia’s agriculture ministry has already bought 2.21 million tonnes of grain from the domestic market for the state stockpile in the current July-June season, Sovecon added. The ministry plans to buy up to 3 million tonnes this season.

Farmers have planted winter grains on 17.7 million hectares, compared with 18.4 million hectares around the same date a year earlier, the consultancy said.

The weather conditions remain good for winter wheat in the Volga and the central regions of Russia, Sovecon said, adding that it is dryer than normal in the southern region, a major wheat producer.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Polina Devitt; editing by Susan Fenton)