November 1, 2005

Europe cash wheat: flat ahead of Tuesday Holiday

European cash wheat prices were flat in lacklustre trading Monday, with many traders absent because Tuesday is a public holiday in many key marketing regions.

French new-crop standard wheat was mostly quoted at EUR105.00 a tonne basis spot delivered Rouen, which was steady to down EUR0.50 from Friday. B-Quality German wheat continues to be priced at EUR106.00/tonne delivered spot at Hamburg/Rostock.

In the UK, buyers looking for coasters for November were looking for GBP69.00/tonne, while sellers wanted GBP70.00/tonne. This is largely unchanged from last week.

Offering some psychological pressure was disappointment that Egypt's main state buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities, failed to purchase any French wheat in its tender over the weekend and instead took a cargo each of US and Australian wheat.

This added to the season's demand woes. In Rouen, France's largest grain port, wheat exports tallied 189,941 tonnes for the period Oct 1-26, up just 23,000 tonnes on the week. In October last year, wheat exports out of the Rouen totalled 499,000 tons.

However, prices continue to hold stable because they already are at intervention level, offering farmers little motivation to sell.

This week the market will be watching to try and get an early indication of how much wheat is headed for intervention stores, which open for the 2005-06 crop on Tuesday.

Euronext.liffe wheat futures were mixed. London January feed wheat ended flat at GBP69.50/tonne, with 24 lots traded. French November milling wheat was up EUR0.25 at EUR109.25/tonne, with 569 contracts moved.