Shot is becoming a serious problem in wheat

The September wheat contract on the Matif closed yesterday up 193,75% at €5.08 per tonne. Wheat also showed a very modest gain on the CBoT, closing 1 cent higher at $3.79½ per bushel. Corn closed lower, losing 0,8¾ cent to close at $9.61¾ per bushel. Soybeans closed XNUMX% lower at $XNUMX½ per bushel.

The persistent rain that parts of Europe have been experiencing for several weeks now is now causing serious problems for the wheat that is still in place. Several growers in the north of the country are reporting that their wheat is starting to sprout. This is something you would expect in a lodging site, given the wet conditions. Even good standing plots are not immune to sprouting, although this also depends partly on the variety. The fact that sprouting is occurring on such a large scale is remarkable, considering that much of this wheat in the north of the country is barely ripe for two weeks. This demonstrates just how wet the situation is.

As a farmer, there's little else to do but hope the weather forecast is accurate and that the rain will stop for a while. Hindsight is easy, of course, but those who did manage to thresh well over 20% of the harvest may not have done so badly after all. However, we should note that at current grain prices, drying costs—whether you do it yourself or have it done—take a significant bite out of the bottom line.

State of emergency
The quality problems aren't limited to the Netherlands. There are also serious concerns about quality in northern and eastern Germany and Poland. Rapeseed and winter barley have just finished harvesting in some regions, and several growers have yet to start harvesting wheat, according to insiders.

Further east, Latvia has even declared a state of emergency for its agricultural sector. Heavy rains and flooding have caused significant damage to the country's crops, the government wrote in a statement. "The situation is extreme; either there is nothing to harvest at all, or the quality is so poor that it can only be used for animal feed and not for human consumption," the Latvian Minister of Agriculture wrote in a statement. By declaring the state of emergency, affected farmers can apply for leniency on their obligations to the tax authority and a deferral of interest and principal payments on their financial sector debts until November 4th.

Too expensive
Reports of quality problems are making little impression on the futures markets. Buyers' wait-and-see attitude continues to weigh on sentiment. However, that there is no interest in wheat at all is not the case. Jordan, for example, had a tender for 120.000 tons but ultimately did not buy. Importers from Taiwan had a tender for 60.000 tons but did not buy because they considered the prices too high.