October 24, 2011

Russian wheat prices down

For the fourth consecutive week, Russia's domestic wheat prices dropped, according to SovEcon.

Domestic prices for third-grade milling wheat have fallen 3.3% to RUB5,854 (US$188.28) a tonne, while fourth-grade milling wheat fell 4.2% to RUB5,650 (US$182) per tonne. Feed wheat fell 1.4% to RUB5,050 (US$162) per tonne.

Andrey Sizov Jr., managing director of SovEcon, said prices are falling because of the new crop hitting the market and buyers are purchasing less because stocks are high.

EU wheat futures also saw losses this week amid jitters over the euro-zone debt crisis, a strengthening euro and an increasingly bearish fundamental outlook.

Analyst Strategie Grains earlier this week lifted its EU soft wheat forecast for 2011-12 to 129.2 million tonnes on better-than-expected crops in the UK, France and Romania. Of the crop, 65% is expected to be of milling quality, up from 54% last year.