January 18, 2011

Grain prices hike in all Russia except Siberia

Grain prices rose in the first working week after the New Year holidays in most Russian regions except Siberia where there was a price correction, analysts said on Monday (Jan 17).

Prices have strengthened in the European part of Russia last week in spite of the recent announcement on the forthcoming start of intervention sales, the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) said.

Feed barley rose RUB175 (US$5.82) to RUB8,550 (US$285.38) per tonne EXW European Russia, while third-grade milling wheat rose RUB125 (US$4.17) to RUB7,325 (US$244.49) per tonne, SovEcon agricultural analysts said.

In dollar terms, third-grade wheat prices in southern Russia rose to US$215 per tonne from US$209, fourth-grade wheat to US$205 per tonne from US$200, feed wheat to US$202 from US$195, feed barley to US$280 from US$256, corn to US$286 from US$271, IKAR said.

Prices in Siberia declined as their previous levels made cereals originating from that region uncompetitive, SovEcon said.

SovEcon expects that in the nearest future the government may sell up to 4.5 million tonnes of grain to drought-hit regions at a fixed low price and through intervention tenders, which may push prices down.