On the Euronext/Matif in Paris, the contracts ended the past week with a red sign. The leading May contract fell by EUR 1.50 to EUR 260.25/t. Looking at the entire month of March, the front month lost EUR 15.50 per tonne. On the last trading day in February, the May date still cost 275.75 euros/t. Russia continues to exert pressure on prices. The rumors that the Ministry of Agriculture has asked exporters to exercise restraint are not reflected in the latest figures from the consulting firm ICAR. During the week ending March 28th. 775,000 tons of wheat were exported through Russia. The fob prices are quoted at $272/ton, which is $5 less than a week ago. The very large harvest is putting pressure on prices here, which are already clearly scratching the profitability of exporters and farmers. For the coming harvest, IKAR expects 86 million tons of wheat, which is 18 million tons compared to last year, but would still be the third-best result in history. At the CBoT, the courses were mostly unchanged. The front month closed in Chicago at the previous day's level of 692.25 US cents/bu (239.20 euros/t).In the eagerly awaited annual outlook from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the department's analysts anticipate an overall increase in wheat acreage. Wheat is to be cultivated on an area of 49.85 million acres (+4.12 million acres). This exceeded the growth estimates published by the analysts in advance. The fact that prices did not go into free fall was mainly due to the simultaneous warning that the total harvest could still be smaller despite the larger acreage. The ongoing drought and the recent freak weather conditions (heavy rain and hail in some growing areas) are likely to cloud the prospects significantly.
Source
VR AGRICULTURAL
