Getreide News, 06/30/2023

This week, wheat and corn headed south on both sides of the Atlantic. On the Euronext-Matif, the leading September date closed yesterday with a closing price of 233.25 euros/t. On Thursday last week, September wheat was quoted at EUR 251.00/t. The most traded November corn contract fell from EUR 246.25/t last week to EUR 232.25/t yesterday, Thursday. After last weekend's uprising by the Wagner mercenary group, the political situation in Russia has stabilized. Effects on the grain markets are no longer expected. At the same time, market participants continue to expect the end of the grain agreement on July 18th. The signs are pointing to discontinuation. According to an assessment by the USDA, as of the reporting date of 20.06. A total of 32 million tons of grain and oilseed products have been shipped via the corridor in the period of the agreement so far. Of this, 17 million tons are corn and 9 million tons wheat, while barley accounts for 1.3 million tons. Around a quarter of all agricultural exports via this corridor went to China. However, the main trigger for the price decline was better weather conditions.In the USA in particular, it rained in many areas of the Great Plains and the Corn Belt this week and further precipitation has also been announced for the coming week. In the case of corn in particular, the precipitation is making US farmers look much more relaxed. This Friday, the USDA publishes its quarterly report on stocks and acreage. In the case of wheat in particular, only little potential for adaptation is expected. US market participants were once again disappointed with export volumes this week. In Europe, too, it has been raining more recently, even if not all parts of Germany and France are benefiting equally from the precipitation. A look at the current drought monitor shows that the water available to plants is already becoming scarce again. In the far north and in the southern federal states in particular, the topsoil is already very dry again. The EU export statistics for common wheat reached 30.789 million tons shortly before the end of the marketing year. The main customer in this marketing year was Morocco, followed by Algeria. A look at the statistics also shows that Algeria and Egypt in particular have reduced their order volumes in Europe.Both countries have recently increased their purchases in Russia. Barley exports increased particularly in the second half of the year. As in the previous year, China is the largest buyer of European barley. A total of 6.33 million tons of barley have been exported so far, which is below the previous year's level of 7.02 million tons. Nothing has changed in the distribution of export volumes. With 10.10 million tons, France is still Europe's largest supplier of wheat, followed by Romania with 4.61 million tons and Germany with 3.86 million tons. In the case of barley, the largest share of the export volume also comes from France with 3.22 million tons. Here, Germany is in second place with 1.52 million tons. On the import side of the balance sheet, corn imports amounted to 25.52 million tons. In the previous year it was 16.28 million tons.