European market

Last week, at the same time of the SPACE salon in Rennes, number of operators of the feed animal sector from the West of France met each other for the Carrefour des Matières Premières organized by the Association Nutrinoë. After the poor harvest, a lot of debates took place about the best way to value the cereals, considering the low specific weight, presenting use problems in the industrial process. Strong content in protein is at the opposite a positive element. The last enquiry from FranceAgrimer about quality has confirmed a protein level at highest level since 2003 at about 12.6%. Doubts about corn volumes will imply the use of other cereals, like in previous season, and according supplies parities import solutions could be used also.

The export market will be penalized as well by low specific weight of French origins, the situation created by Egypt with a zero tolerance policy in ergot will add to uncertainties. Despite of the needs from the first world importer, negotiations are complex with cancellations of shipments after inspection. This situation has pushed Egypt to relaunch a tender today after the failure of last Friday.

For the new harvest, recent rains are offering some relief to rapeseed crops where seeding have been disrupted by very dry conditions, pushing farmers to change their plans in a few areas. The situation is very heterogeneous and will have to be closely monitored in the future to appreciate the real impact.

American market

Due to the delays in harvest works implied by rainy conditions, corn and soybean prices rose last Friday. Wet perspectives for this week could again disrupt the works. Corn harvest is just starting, but is registering a delay compared to the 5 years’ average.

Soybean prices are showing steadiness at the beginning of this week. The November contract in Chicago is close to the resistance of 9.80 $/b, matching the highest levels seen from the start of the month.

Black Sea market

A slowdown of loading activity in Russia has been registered during last week on the export scene, with only 166 000 t of wheat and 70 000 t of barley. For the last three weeks, the pace of weekly loading in wheat has been divided by three. Russian’s barley is starting the season slowly.

At the opposite, activity in Ukraine remains buoyant with about 500 000 t of wheat shipped and more than 100 000 t of barley in a weekly basis. Ukrainian corn will reach harbors in coming days and first shipments will start.