March 15, 2011

Russia's grain prices keep going downhill

The grain prices of Russia kept declining slowly last week amid the continuous government sales intervention tenders, analysts said Monday (Mar 14).

Average prices declined by RUB50-100 (US$1.75-$3.49) per tonne, SovEcon agricultural analysts said.

Third-grade wheat in the south of Russia declined to US$225 per tonne from US$229, fourth-grade to US$213 from US$217, feed wheat to US$204 from US$212, feed barley to US$292 from US$297, corn to US$310 from US$314, the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) said.

"Grain owners in southern Russia are in panic, as grain stocks are unusually high for this time of a year, while the demand is blocked by ongoing interventions," it said.

Prices for third grade wheat at the tenders were little changed from a week before, but fourth-grade wheat declined to RUB6,573.1 (US$230.29) per tonne from RUB6,603.5 (US$231.36).

"Price stagnation results from the fact that prices at the tenders are close to market prices in many regions," SovEcon said.