The depressed mood for the weekend continues today. The wheat quotation on the Matif is exploring the bottom of the market. A blockade in the Bosphorus seemed to bring some mood to the market, but fortunately the stranded ship was refloated before the market even opened properly.
The wheat market is moving mainly sideways this trading session. The March contract for wheat stands at €288,25 per tonne at the time of writing, which is €0,50 lower than the closing price last Friday. The CBoT is closed today due to the American holiday Martin Luther King Day.
The grain market was briefly shocked this morning by a ship that got stuck in the Bosphorus. The ship flying the flag of Palau (an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean) was en route with 13.000 tons of peas and ran aground at half past seven local time due to a defective rudder, according to Turkish authorities. Within a few hours, the 142-meter-long ship was refloated and the Bosphorus could be opened again. The Bosphorus is the strait between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea and an important route for grain exports from Russia and Ukraine.
Russian exports are taking a step back
The dampened mood on the wheat market has not gone unnoticed in the Black Sea region. Market agency IKAR lowered the quotation for wheat delivered in the Black Sea ports free on board (free on board) by $1 to $305 per tonne. Weekly grain exports took a big step back last week. According to Sovecon, Russia exported 760.000 tons of grain last week compared to 970.000 a week earlier. Wheat is by far the most important export product. Last week Russia exported 670.000 tons of wheat. The week before that was 860.000 tons of wheat. Sovecon keeps the total expected export figure for the month of January unchanged from last week at 4,1 million tonnes. Russia also has quite a bit of wheat to export in the current season. The Russian news agency Interfax reports today, based on data from the Russian Statistical Office Rosstat, that the 2022 Russian grain harvest has amounted to 153,8 million tons. Of this, 104,43 million is wheat.
The frost damage to Russian winter wheat for the coming harvest, which was warned about last week, is not too bad, according to Sovecon. In the Volga region in the southwest of the country, some wheat has been overwintered, but "the cold period did not last long enough to cause widespread problems," the market agency said. The mercury is now rising again in Russia.