October 30, 2007

British feed wheat prices on the downward trend

Feed wheat prices in the UK continue to slide this week as farmers hold on to their remaining crops.

November ex-farm prices had dropped to GBP142 per tonne on Monday (29 October), as demand both within the UK and in Europe lessened.

According to John Sturt of Shropshire's Grain, the market dropped away quite a lot last week and not many are selling at these levels.

There were reports that the Russians would export more than they thought, which dropped the market, but towards the end of last week it had started to recover, he said.

Sturt said a lot of the UK's feed wheat forward crop had already been sold forward and with futures prices hitting GBP150 per tonne for January and February. The price held many farmers to hold onto their remaining crop until then.

Grainfarmers' Simon Ingle said trade was "extremely slow" as the market is lacklustre with farmers selling what they want already and there is very little incentive to buy or sell.

Ingle said feed wheat was currently GBP150 per tonne, while milling wheat was GBP175/tonne.

January feed wheat prices were trading at GBP153/tonne, while GBP156/tonne was achievable for March 2008.

Ingle noted there would not be enough changes for the foreseeable future and it would take strong buying to cover for the second half of the year.