Getreide News, 03/24/2023

Wheat is headed south this week. The leading May contract closed yesterday at a closing price of 245.00 euros/t. With the start of today's trading day, however, there are signs of positive tendencies again. By 12 noon, wheat had improved to 249.25 euros/t in the front month of May, but is still well below the closing price of last Friday, when 265.50 euros/t were traded at the closing bell. Corn also went south this week. The front month of June lost EUR 19 per tonne to EUR 242.75 per tonne from last Friday until the close of trading yesterday Thursday. Similar to wheat, however, prices on the Euronext/Matif in Paris are showing an upward trend again this Friday. In particular, the agreed extension of 60 days for agricultural goods transports from Ukraine via the Black Sea depressed the mood on the stock market this week. The contracting parties did not agree to 120 days, as they did in Ukraine, but at least to an extension of 60 days until May 18th. Due to the short term, however, there should soon be new speculations about the continued existence. Wheat prices were also weaker on the spot markets.There are reports from France that farmers have recently shown a greater willingness to sell their shares, thereby fueling the fall in prices. In addition, heavy rainfall fell in many parts of Europe this week. Above all, the most recently dry areas in France benefited significantly and there were also helpful rain showers in Germany. In the March Bulletin he attested to the overall good growth conditions for the winter crops. For the southern parts of Spain and Portugal, however, there are currently signs of a drought. In parts of Greece and on the Black Sea, too, there is sometimes a lack of sufficient rainfall. In Russia, prices also continue to fall. Domestic producer prices have fallen well below the level of the previous year, prompting the Russian Ministry of Agriculture to make state purchases for the country's strategic reserve and thus to support producer prices. The lower price level has recently led to increased export demand again. Turkey and Jordan, for example, are currently looking for goods with larger tenders on the global market. Until 20.3. the 27 EU countries have a total of 22.13 million tons and thus 1.60 milliontons more common wheat exported than last year. However, the weekly volumes have decreased noticeably compared to the previous average this season. This reflects the clear competition from Russia. The current export demand for US wheat is different. The weekly export sales published by the USDA yesterday were below analyst expectations. Only 125,000 tons could be sold. In the USA, the growing conditions for winter wheat have improved significantly thanks to heavy rainfall in the Great Plains. In Texas and Kansas in particular, winter crops benefited from the rain showers. The turbulence on the American and European financial markets due to the bankruptcy of the Silicon Valley Bank and the difficulties at Credit Suisse only played a minor role at the CBoT this week. The EU maize imports are 19.729 million tons still very dynamic. More maize has already been imported than in the entire 2021/22 marketing year. At the CBoT, corn prices repeatedly benefited from a veritable shopping spree by China in the USA.The USDA was also able to announce deals on many days this week, most recently yesterday for a corn order of 126,000 tons from China. Accordingly, the weekly export sales were high at 3.1 million tons, which the analysts had already expected in advance. In South America everything stays the same. A few showers have recently fallen in Argentina, so that the cultivation situation has not changed fundamentally, but the plants have benefited somewhat. On a weekly basis, however, there is also a minus on the CBoT scoreboard.