Uk wheat imports double
Posted by Anderson Grain Marketing on Feb 28, 2013 in AGM News | 0 comments
Feed wheat values have remained little unchanged for the third week running over the last seven days. The global wheat market appears to be suffering a serious lack of direction at the minute as it waits to see how A.) the south American maize corn harvest turns out (they are a key exporter and producer of the crop and therefore play a big part in global grain prices) and B.) how well winter sown wheats have stood dormancy across the northern hemisphere; both of which we probably won’t have a clearer idea of for at least another four weeks yet.
Old crop ex-farm values have fluctuated between £206-210/T over the last few trading sessions for spot collection, with little price carry available for movement further forward.
New crop feed wheat values have remained around the £180/T ex-farm mark for August/September collection, again with little price carry available for movement further forward. Trade volumes have however continued to improve with many growers opting to secure at least a couple of load at this sort of level. Ploughed fields were a common sight over the weekend… now if only we could have some sunshine!
Feed barley values are also little unchanged and trade volumes have continued to be thin as both buyers and sellers fail to come to an agreement; farm-sellers on the one hand are reluctant to let barley leave the farm gate for much less than £200/T, whilst end-users on the other are standing firm at a £15/T discount to feed wheat.
As for malting varieties, Muntons are actively seeking to secure the last of this season’s old crop – for those of you with good quality malting varieties left on farm today’s price levels may be worth some consideration. New crop malting barley is also good value with certain varieties offering a £25/T premium for harvest collection – please contact the office for more information.
The latest HMR&C data was released towards the end of last week (see HGCA.com for more) and subsequently confirmed that the UK imported a staggering 305,000/T of wheat in December 2012 (that’s more than three times the 93,800/T we imported in December 2011) – the highest monthly import figure since July 1992.
The release of the data brings this season’s confirmed total so far (from July to December 2012) to a staggering 1.34M/T, a massive amount compared to the 460,500/T imported in the first 6 months of last season (July-December 2011).
According to agrimoney.com, millers have been one of the ‘major drivers’ for the above, actively seeking out alternative milling wheats to ensure good flour quality. 107,000/T of the total December wheat imports emanated from Germany, a key source of high protein milling wheat. Hard wheat from Canada and soft wheats from France were also commonplace.
UK wheat exports meanwhile stood at a poor 35,000/T for the month of December, bringing this season’s (July to December 2012) exported total so far to just 512,000/T.
Meanwhile, old crop OSR values briefly (and VERY surprisingly) touched £400/T ex-farm for April collection last week. After the Euro fell to an 8-month low, OSR values gained a huge £11/T overnight towards the end of last week, putting the benchmark £400/T back on the table (an offer which was obviously heavily traded). Current values are however much lower, with ex-farm values struggling to make £390/T for spot collection.