IKAR: Russian wheat prices fall with lower demand

MOSCOW, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Russian wheat prices fell last week, with lower demand and lower global benchmarks in Chicago and Paris amid talks to prolong grain export deal from Ukraine's ports, IKAR agriculture consultancy said in a note on Monday.

Russian prices for wheat with 12.5% protein content and for supply from Black Sea ports were at $312 per tonne free on board (FOB) at the end of last week, down $11 from a week earlier, IKAR said.

Russia's grain exports rose to 1.06 million tonnes last week from 910,000 tonnes a week earlier, fellow consultancy Sovecon said, citing port data.

Farmers have already planted winter grains on 14.9 million hectares compared to 15.3 million hectares around the same date a year ago, Sovecon said.

Harvesting of sunflower seeds is being affected by excessive rains in Russia's central and Volga regions, IKAR said, adding that it had lowered its forecast for the sunseed crop to 16.35 million tonnes from 16.95 million tonnes.

 Product:                Price at the end     Change from week
                            of last week:              earlier
 - Domestic 3rd class    12,675 rbls/t               -250 rbls
 wheat, European part            ($207.3)  
 of Russia, excludes                       
 delivery (Sovecon)                        
 - Sunflower seeds          21,450 rbls/t            -225 rbls
 (Sovecon)                                 
 - Domestic sunflower       72,675 rbls/t            unchanged
 oil (Sovecon)                             
 - Domestic soybeans        29,900 rbls/t            -425 rbls
 (Sovecon)                                 
 - Export sunflower              $1,290/t                 +$50
 oil (Sovecon)                             
 - Export sunflower              $1,170/t                 +$20
 oil (IKAR)                                
 - White sugar,                  $796.8/t                 +$17
 Russia's south                            
 (IKAR)

                    All grains:   Wheat  Barley  Corn  Sunseeds
 Crop, mln tonnes         147.2   104.1    24.3   4.4       6.5
 Crop, as of same         113.2    76.7    18.6   6.4      11.2
 date in 2021                                          
 Yield,                    3.33    3.59    3.08  6.01      1.81
 tonnes/hectare                                        
 Yield, as of same         2.66    2.81    2.38  4.98      1.62
 date in 2021                                          
 Harvested area,           44.2    29.0     7.9   0.7       3.6
 mln hectares                                          
 Harvested area,           42.6    27.3     7.8   1.3       6.9
 as of same date                                       
 in 2021

* Russia's agriculture ministry has yet to publish harvesting data in detail for the current season.

** The harvesting data is by bunker weight, i.e. before drying and cleaning of the crop.