May 30, 2008

EU export licenses continue to gain strength

EU licenses to export soft wheat rose 151,000 tonnes for the week ended May 27, EU data showed Thursday (May 29, 2008).

This compares to a rise of 196,000 tonnes in the previous week and brings the total for 2007-08 to 8.221 million tonnes, 48 weeks into the marketing year.

So far in the current campaign, the EU was a net soft wheat exporter of 3.749 million tonnes.

This falls shy of year-ago levels when EU soft wheat export licenses totaled 8.085 million tonnes for net exports of 4.386 million tonnes.

Due to sluggish sales early season, EU soft wheat import licenses exceeded those to export until early February. But demand has picked up in the later half of the campaign as supplies in other exporting nations run low.

As of 48 weeks into the season, however, the EU remains as a net grain importer of 8.6 million tonnes. This contrasts to net exports of 4.9 million the same time last season. This is mostly because of an increase in corn and sorghum imports due as a cheap feed alternative to wheat.