Inside Grains & Commodities
Week 21: grain prices rise sharply
Grain prices are again showing a significant increase. Maize shows the biggest outlier, but the quotations for wheat and soy are also at a high level. This is mainly due to the reports of disappointing harvest expectations.
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Choose the subscription that suits youOn the CBoT in chicago the wheat listing towards $200 per tonne. The price is also rising at the Matif in Paris and is approx €180 quoted per tonne. Concerns about dry weather in the American Plains, Canada, eastern Australia and Russia play a major role in this. For example, it will be quite warm in the south of the American Plains over the next 10 days (temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius), which will not do the wheat any good.
The disappointing expectations for the Russian grain harvest also have a price-supporting effect (-10 million tons to 105 million tons). This has to do with the drought in large parts of Russia and the damage caused by the harsh winter. The regional stock exchanges also show an increase in wheat prices, with the highest quotation being €172 per tonne on the fair in Middenmeer.
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The wheat quotation on the Matif in Paris is approaching €180 per tonne.
Highlights for corn
Corn prices also reached new highs. The highest price since July last year was recorded on the Matif (€168,50 per tonne). This is partly due to the drought in Ukraine, where a lot of corn is produced. There are also concerns about corn crops elsewhere in the world, for example in the Midwest.
Europe shows a hunger for corn; even bought in South Africa. Not so much maize has been exported from South Africa to Europe in 7 years. The fact that so much is imported is unusual given the transport distance. The rising price is partly due to the low prices in the country (due to the large harvest), but also to the increased demand from the European Union (+41%).
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Corn prices have been showing a strong upward trend for a long time.
Decrease in tensions
Soybean prices on the CBoT ended higher; this under the influence of the decreased tensions between the United States and China, raising hopes for increased export demand. However, the increase remained limited, partly due to a large Brazilian soybean harvest and the higher sowing rate in the United States.
In Russia, soy is gaining more and more attention; So a stock exchange listing for soybeans started in Moscow yesterday.