Grain markets are slightly sleepy at present with little movement taking place. Meanwhile, sowing is in full swing across the continent.
Around the world
Across the water in the UK, wheat stocks are at a four-year low at 1.7 million tonnes, according to the AHDB (Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board). That’s a 37% year-on-year decline in opening stocks.
A report on grain stocks from the USDA (US Department of Agriculture) on September 28 showed that wheat stocks in the US were 5% up compared to a year ago. As of September 1, old crop corn stocks were down 7% on last year.
Some reports state that the Russian wheat harvest is currently at 68.3 million tonnes and is expected to finish at 72 million tonnes.
Reports from Ukraine estimate that approximately 4.3 million hectares of winter grain crops have been sown out of an estimated 7.2 million hectares.
In the markets, LIFFE (November), MATIF (December) and CBOT (December) wheat all went green on Thursday (October 4) and looked very positive by Friday.
LIFFE
LIFFE wheat for November opened the week at £176.10/t (€199.76/t) and didn’t shy away from here until Wednesday (October 3), when it hit £178/t (€201.91/t). By Thursday (October 4), it had climbed a little bit further to £178.60/t (€202.59/t); it finished out the week at £179/t (€203.05/t) on Friday (October 5).
MATIF
The December price for MATIF wheat finished at €201.25/t on both Monday (October 1) and Wednesday (October 3), dropping to €200/t on Tuesday (October 2). It hopped up to €202.75/t on Thursday (October 4) and it sat at €203/t by Friday afternoon.
CBOT
Starting the week at 509.50c/bu (€171.55/t), the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) wheat for December looked more positive towards the weekend. It jumped to 519.25c/bu (€165.73/t) on Tuesday (October 2), dropped to 515.25c/bu (€164.46/t) on Wednesday (October 3) and reached 518c/bu (€165.41/t) on Thursday (October 4).