The price of the December wheat contract fell for the second day in a row on Tuesday. And also on the CBOT in Chicago, the price of wheat is falling. Corn moves mostly sideways on both exchanges, falling slightly on the Matif and rising slightly on the CBOT. Soybeans became slightly more expensive.
The already large Russian grain harvest may become even larger if Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev has his way. He would like to add the grain harvest of the four annexed areas to the Russian harvest. According to Patrushev, this amounts to approximately 5 million tons. This morning (October 5) it was announced that President Putin has signed a number of laws that officially make the annexation of the Ukrainian territories a fact.
Sowing winter wheat in Ukraine is three times slower than a year ago. On Monday, 1,1 million hectares had been sown, or about 2,7% of the expected area. Last year that was 3,1 million hectares. It is not entirely clear exactly how many hectares are sown with winter wheat. Estimates vary between 3,4 and 3,8 million hectares. In any case, it is considerably less than the 6 million hectares that were sown for the 2022 harvest.
Boats in traffic jams due to drought
There are traffic jams on the Mississippi River. Reuters reported late Tuesday evening that about a hundred tugboats, towing about 1.600 inland vessels, were stuck in a mile-long traffic jam near Lake Providence in Louisiana, where the passage has been closed most of the time since the end of last week. Other areas of the river have also been closed in recent weeks. This had a disruptive effect on exports from the US Gulf Coast, where about 60% of US grains leave the country.
The American army has now been called in to dig out parts of the river to allow a number of ships to continue sailing. However, boaters fear that without substantial rainfall, problems could continue into the busy export season. Moreover, the rivers are only becoming busier now that products such as road salt have to be transported north due to the approaching winter.
Skippers are said to have loaded the ships less fully so that they lie higher in the water and tow barges have reduced the number of inland vessels they tow by 40%. Many exporters also reduced supplies of corn and soy in October and November because they are unsure whether they can supply enough. While soy exports normally shoot up at the end of September and beginning of October, this is not yet the case.
Pricing
The December wheat contract on the CBOT closed Tuesday at $9,05 per bushel (€335,46 per tonne), down 0,8%. At the Matif in Paris, December contract wheat closed at €349,75 tonnes, 0,36% lower than Monday. The price for the November soybean contract on the CBOT rose slightly in the past day, closing Tuesday at $13,83 per bushel ($512,88 per tonne). An increase of 0,58%. The November corn contract closed 0,48% higher on Tuesday at $6,84 per bushel (€271,73 per tonne) on the CBOT and €339,75 per tonne on the Matif. The price is therefore 0,07% lower than on Monday.