EU weekly wheat exports hit marketing year low

Weekly wheat exports from the EU hit the lowest level of the marketing year as just 113,712 mt of export licences were issued in the week to March 13, data from the European Commission showed Thursday.

Returning after a week’s absence due to a technical hitch, the release also showed 213,880 mt left the EU in the week to March 8.

Again, only French wheat exports were of note, with 94,198 mt loaded. The next biggest seller was Romania, which loaded 11,343 mt.

European grain sales have struggled to compete on a global stage this year, with increased competition from Russia and a stronger euro leaving 2017/18 marketing year sales 22% below where they were at this stage last year.

Earlier in the week, French agriculture agency FranceAgriMer reduced its forecast for extra-EU sales for the 2017/18 marketing year for the fifth month in a row as it cut 500,000 mt from its expectation to 8.5 million mt.

While corn imports slowed week-on-week to come in at 335,076 mt, they are still 54% ahead of where they were at the same stage last year.