April 19, 2011

Russia sees grain prices fall

Feed barley and feed corn prices posted significant declines amid overall lower Russian grain prices, due to expectations of state sales of feed grain at fixed low prices, analysts said on Monday (Apr 18).

SovEcon Agricultural analysts said that both barley and corn lost RUB450 (US$15.8), having declined to RUB7,400 (US$260) per tonne EXW European Russia, and to RUB8,050 (US$283) per tonne respectively.

Feed wheat lost RUB400 (US$14.1) to RUB5,300 (US$186.5) per tonne. Milling wheat and milling rye lost RUB200 (US$7.04) to RUB300 (US$10.55) per tonne, it said.

The decline in grain prices cut the price of wheat flour by RUB575 (US$20.2) to RUB10,075 (US$354.4) per tonne. SovEcon expects the demand for wheat to increase in the near future, which may stabilise prices.

The Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) said that in the south of Russia, prices appeared to have reached bottom. Wheat prices were unchanged in RUB, and even rose slightly in US$ terms.

Feed barley prices declined to US$249 per tonne from US$259, corn prices to US$277 per tonne from US$284, IKAR said. Sunseed prices dropped to US$638 per tonne from US$642, while crude sunoil increased to US$1,398 per tonne from US$1,394. Sugar prices declined to RUB28,200 (US$992) per tonne from RUB29,500 (US$1,038), IKAR said.