IKAR in Mass and Industry Media

Russian grain prices fall as harvest progresses

Reuters

MOSCOW, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Most Russian grain prices declined last week as new crop grain continued to arrive on the market, analysts said on Monday, adding that prices may fall further due to a delay in government grain purchases.

Forward contracts for ordinary milling wheat with protein content of 11.5 percent were fixed at $160-$162 per tonne FOB Novorossiisk compared to $162.5 the week before, the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) said.

Feed barley rose to $130 per tonne from $125, it said.

Exporters' CPT prices for fourth-grade (ordinary) wheat in Novorossisk were stable at 4,500-4,600 roubles ($142.4-$145.6) per tonne and declined from the same level to 4,100-4,300 roubles per tonne at shallow water ports, SovEcon agricultural analysts said.

Domestic grain prices declined rather modestly - third-grade wheat to $130 per tonne from $131, fourth-grade to $115 per tonne from $119 and feed wheat to $95 per tonne from $96, all ex-silo basis, IKAR said.

Feed barley price declined to $86 per tonne from $88, while maize start-up prices were in the region of $150 per tonne, it said.

The difference between offer and bid prices in many regions was rather wide last week, SovEcon said. Producers were reluctant to lower prices awaiting an announcement of the start of government intervention purchases.

But the government supported last week a proposal by the Agriculture Ministry to postpone the start of intervention tenders to October from the earlier planned timeframe of the end of August - beginning of September, SovEcon said.

SovEcon believes that the delay in the purchases may push grain prices further down, especially in the centre of Russia and in Siberia, which expect high crops this year.

This may also slow down the winter grain sowing in the south, where farmers expected to use the proceeds from grains sale to the government to finance the sowing campaign, it said.

Last week, the harvesting of sunseeds started in the south of Russia, IKAR said. The start-up prices are being kept at around $286-$316 per tonne compared with $285-$315 a week before, it said.

The sugar market cooled down last week after an impressive rally in the previous two weeks due to the growing pressure of the new beet crop sugar.

Prices rose by $3 per tonne to $762 last week in dollar terms in Krasnodar, while in rouble terms prices remained unchanged, IKAR said, adding it expected a decline in some regions.

09.09.09

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