February 4, 2008

EU net grain imports trimmed on week at 7.7 million tonnes

EU licenses to import grain totaled 7.65 million tonnes more than those to export grain as of January 29, some 31 weeks into the 2007-08 marketing year.

The total is down slightly from a 7.88-million-tonne difference as of January 22, but is in contrast to the same time last year when the EU was a net grain exporter of 3 million tonnes.

Corn and sorghum import licenses rose on the week, but offsetting this was a decline in soft wheat import licenses as a previous clerical error was rectified.

EU soft wheat import and export licenses are close to even following the data correction, with net imports of 17,000 tonnes as of January 29, down from 481,000 tonnes of net imports listed in the previous week.

This contrasts with the same time last season when EU soft wheat licenses showed a net export total of 2.9 million tonnes.

Over the season, corn and sorghum have led the growth in EU imports, following domestic crop-production problems and as grain intervention supplies are now nearly used up.

Total EU licenses to import corn came to 8.7 million tonnes as of January 29, up from 8.6 million tonnes a week earlier and up from 3.2 million tonnes at the same date last year.

Licenses to import sorghum totaled 3.5 million tonnes as of January 29, up from 3.2 million tonnes a week earlier, and up from just 438,000 tonnes for the same time in 2007.