March 28, 2008

EU 2007-08 corn import licenses rise 124,000 tonnes on week

EU licenses to import corn rose 124,000 tonnes in the week ended March 25, to keep the bloc a large net grain importer for the 2007-08 marketing year, EU data indicated Thursday.

EU corn import licenses total 10.4 million tonnes at 39 weeks into the marketing year, which is up by more than 2 and a half times from the same time last year, when licenses tallied 3.9 million tonnes.

Sorghum import licenses rose by 15,000 tonnes on the week to bring the marketing year total to 4.3 million tonnes.

At the same time last year, licenses totaled just 512,000 tonnes.

Offsetting the rise in corn and sorghum import licenses, soft wheat export licenses rose by 251,000 tonnes on the week to 5.7 million tonnes.

At 39 weeks into the marketing year, EU licenses to import grain were 7.8 million tonnes more than those to export, compared with 7.9 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 4.5 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.