EU wheat loadings fall 57%

EU wheat loadings in the week to January 9 slowed to their third-lowest total of the marketing year, as the holiday period, high domestic consumption, a strong euro, and intense competition from Russia continued to eat into sales.

While weekly sales slowed due to the holiday period at the start of the year, the total was also down 57% on the same week in the 2016/17 marketing year and down 63% on the average of the same week in the past three marketing years.

French sales were again the biggest of the week, with 102,042 mt sold, taking the marketing year total to 3.66 million mt.

Despite no new shipments in the week, Romania remains in second place with 2.38 million mt, while 44,000 mt of Lithuanian sales took its total to 1.34 million mt.

Total exports for all EU members since the start of the marketing year in July are 19.6% below where they were at the same stage last year, having touched 10.95 million mt this week.

A smaller-than-usual crop and strong demand in Central Europe has kept traditional large exporters such as Germany and Poland out of the export market this marketing year.

With domestic consumers paying a premium for local material, there has been little incentive to ship material to foreign countries.

Strong competition from Russia has been a thorn in the side of all major wheat exporters this year, as a record-breaking crop has been dropped on global markets at highly competitive prices.

Russian wheat sales were up 34% year-on-year at 20.7 million mt as of December 29, with EU exporters having struggled to keep up since July.

The recent strength of the euro has been another thorn in the side of EU exporters this year, pricing European-origin wheat out of international markets.

The euro is up 14.2% against the dollar over the previous 12 months to $1.2046 as of Thursday.

Feed imports

Corn imports continue to race ahead of previous years as buyers take advantage of high global production and low prices. Weekly imports stood at 360,155 mt, 16.3% higher than during the same week last year.

Total imports now stand at 7.91 million mt, 45.4% higher than at the same stage last year. Brazilian-origin corn now represents 52.8% of the total volume, with Ukraine at 30.7%.

On the oilseeds front, soybean imports came to 266,195 mt in the week, taking the total for the marketing year to 6.31 million mt – 10.9% lower than at the same stage last year.

US soybeans represent 37.2% of the total volume, with Brazil at 29%, and Paraguay at 13.3%.