Russian wheat steady as winter sowing accelerates, ukraine exports continue

Russian wheat prices were steady last week amid improving weather for winter grains sowing and the continuing Ukraine grain export deal despite an escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Russian prices for wheat with 12.5% protein content and for supply from Black Sea ports were stable at $325 per tonne free on board (FOB) at the end of last week, the IKAR agriculture consultancy said in a note on Monday.

Russia kept grain exports steady at 870,000 tonnes last week, fellow consultancy Sovecon said, citing port data. Sovecon also said it had raised its forecast for Russia’s 2022/23 July-June exports by 300,000 tonnes to 43.4 million tonnes of wheat. It kept its estimate for barley and corn exports unchanged – at 6.0 million tonnes and 4.8 million tonnes, respectively.

Other Russian data provided by Sovecon and IKAR: Product: Price at the end Change from week of last week: earlier – Domestic 3rd class 12,550 rbls/t -100 rbls wheat, European part of Russia, excludes delivery (Sovecon) – Sunflower seeds 22,500 rbls/t -725 rbls (Sovecon) – Domestic sunflower 73,325 rbls/t -2,350 rbls oil (Sovecon) – Domestic soybeans 31,675 rbls/t -725 rbls (Sovecon) – Export sunflower $1,220/t -$10 oil (Sovecon) – Export sunflower $1,080/t -$55 oil (IKAR) – White sugar, $949.3/t +$113.6 Russia’s south (IKAR) Harvesting data provided by Sovecon as of Sept 29: All grains: Wheat Barley Corn Sunseeds Crop, mln tonnes 141.1 101.8 23.9 1.9 2.6 Crop, as of same 106.0 74.4 18.2 2.8 4.9 date in 2021 Yield, 3.32 3.61 3.09 5.79 2.02 tonnes/hectare Yield, as of same 2.62 2.82 2.38 4.67 1.59 date in 2021 Harvested area, 42.5 28.2 7.7 0.3 1.3 mln hectares Harvested area, 40.5 26.4 7.6 0.6 3.1 as of same date in 2021 * Russia’s agriculture ministry has yet to publish harvesting data in detail for the current season. ** The harvesting data is by bunker weight, i.e. before drying and cleaning of the crop.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Olga Popova and Polina Devitt; editing by David Evans)