November 11, 2011

EU grants 502,000 tonnes soft wheat cargo

The EU has approved export licences for 502,000 tonnes of soft wheat this week, with the total amounting to 5.54 million tonnes since the start of the 2011/12 (July-June) season, official data showed on Thursday (Nov 10).

This was the second consecutive award of more than 500,000 tonnes of weekly wheat export licences.

Still, EU wheat exports remained well below the 8.8 million tonnes of licences cleared by the same stage in 2010/11, the data showed.

EU wheat exports have seen renewed competition from Russia this season and are now facing a pick-up in Ukrainian shipments after the country scrapped export duties on wheat and corn.

France claimed the largest share of this week's EU soft wheat export licences with 314,325 tonnes requested, ahead of Germany with 91,000 tonnes, the Netherlands with 20,000 and Romania with 15,000.

The EU this week also granted licences to export 141,000 tonnes of corn, bringing the total this season to 1.24 million tonnes compared with 405,000 tonnes at the same stage last season, the data showed.

Of this total, nearly 66,000 tonnes were requested in Romania, 44,450 tonnes in Bulgaria and 22,600 tonnes in Germany. Romania now accounts for 38% of total corn export licences this season.

The EU is usually a small exporter of corn but high prices in the US, the world's top corn producer and exporter, and a big EU harvest this year have generated a wave of export demand in recent weeks.

Barley export licences this week reached 93,000 tonnes, bringing the total this season at 1.72 million tonnes against 2.24 million tonnes at the same point last year.