April 14, 2008

EU 2007-08 corn import licenses rise 278,000 tonnes on week

The EU licenses to import corn rose 278,000 tonnes in the week ended April 8 to keep the 27-nation bloc a large net grain importer for the 2007-08 marketing year, EU data showed Friday.

At 41 weeks into the marketing year, EU corn import licenses totaled 11.247 million tonnes, up by more than two and a half times from the same time last year, when licenses tallied 3.99 million tonnes.

Sorghum import licenses rose 103,000 tonnes on the week to bring the marketing year total to 4.6 million tonnes. At the same time last year, licenses totaled just 513,000 tonnes.

Offsetting the rise in corn and sorghum import licenses, soft wheat export licenses rose by 318,000 tonnes on the week to 6.5 million tonnes.

EU licenses to import grain were 7.84 million tonnes more than those to export, compared with 7.89 million tonnes a week ago.

This was in sharp contrast to the same time last year when the EU was a net grain exporter of 4.9 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.