March 14, 2008

EU 2007-08 corn import licenses rise 196,000 tonnes on week

EU licenses to import corn, as well as sorghum, rose again this week to keep the bloc a large net grain importer for the 2007-08 marketing year, EU data showed Thursday.

Licenses to import corn rose 196,000 tonnes for the week ended March 11 to total 9.7 million tonnes at 37 weeks into the campaign. This is up more than twice from the same time last year, when licenses tallied 3.7 million tonnes.

Sorghum import licenses increased by 72,000 tonnes on the week to bring the marketing year total to 4.1 million tonnes.

At the same time last year, licenses totaled just 512,000 tonnes.

Offsetting the rise in corn and sorghum import licenses, soft wheat export licenses rose by 338,000 tonnes on the week to 5.1 million tonnes.

Thus the EU net grain import figure was actually reduced slightly. At 37 weeks into the campaign, EU licenses to import grain were 7.44 million tonnes more than those to export, compared with 7.58 million tonnes a week ago.

This was a sharp contrast to the same time last year when the EU was a net grain exporter of 4.17 million tonnes.

Traditionally the EU is a net grain exporter, but grain imports rose sharply due to domestic crop-production problems, high feed wheat prices and insufficient intervention supplies.