This week base offers of €156/t and €146/t were offered respectively for wheat and barley by some merchants for harvest 2019. This is where the price has hovered over the last number of weeks and reality is now taking hold on Irish tillage farms.

Thousands of tonnes of barley sit across the country and as planting of cereals has increased across Europe it looks like an extreme weather event will be all that can help harvest price.

A positive in the market is the Free On Board (FOB) Creil price for two-row malting barley (an average of which is being offered to malting barley growers here in Ireland) is holding its own and climbed over the past week as spring barley plantings are reportedly down across Europe.

In other markets LIFFE and MATIF wheat prices for May showed no great signs of movement.

LIFFE

LIFFE wheat for May opened the week at £162.25/t on Monday (March 18) and by Wednesday (March 20) had reached £163.75/t. However, Thursday (March 21) saw a drop to £162.65/t.

MATIF

MATIF wheat for May didn’t make any great signs of movement. It opened the week at €188.75/t on Monday (March 18) and moved to €189.00/t on Wednesday (March 20), where it stayed at close of business on Thursday (March 21).

CBOT

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) wheat stood at 456.75c/bu on Monday (March 18) evening. By Thursday (March 21) evening it had improved and hit 464.60c/bu.

FOB Creil

The FOB Creil was the good news story of the week. It reached €188.00/t on Thursday (March 21) evening, having sat at €187.00/t since Monday (March 18).