IKAR in Mass and Industry Media

Russian wheat export prices ease on competition

Reuters

MOSCOW, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Russian wheat export prices eased last week mainly on rising competition from neighbouring Ukraine and Kazakhstan as well as on the emergence of Argentina on the international markets, analysts said on Monday.

FOB price for wheat with 11.5 percent protein content declined slightly to $236 per tonne from $240 with short-term demand remaining quite weak, while at shallow water ports the price declined to $200 from $203, the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) said in a weekly note.

Russian grain exports since the start of the crop year on July 1 are preliminarily estimated at a record high of 14.1 million tonnes by Nov. 20, including 12 million tonnes of wheat, 1.5 million tonnes of barley and 400,000 tonnes of maize, IKAR said.

Exporters lowered prices including delivery (CPT) to deep sea ports to 7,000-7,100 roubles ($220-$230) per tonne from 7,000-7,200 last week, SovEcon agricultural analysts said in a separate note.

Russia shared victory at the latest Egyptian wheat tender with Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Purchase prices at the tender were down slightly from the previous one.

Egypt, the world's biggest wheat importer, said on Sunday it could add Polish and Hungarian wheat to its list of origins in international tenders.

SovEcon said that continuing decline of Argentine prices is unpleasant news for Russian exporters.

"But freight costs of Argentinian wheat to Egypt is still $25 per tonne higher than the freight from the Black Sea ports, which makes Argentine grain uncompetitive on the Egyptian market yet," it said.

Argentina will authorise exports of an additional 2.5 million to 3.5 million tonnes of 2010/11 wheat next week, a senior Agriculture Ministry official told Reuters on Friday.

A negative international grain price trend and prospects of further weakening of the euro may push prices at the Egyptian tenders further down, SovEcon said.

It said average domestic prices for third-grade milling wheat were unchanged at 5,825 roubles per tonne in the European part of Russia, while for fourth-grade they added 25 roubles to 5,675 roubles.

Feed wheat was unchanged at 5,175 roubles per tonne, while maize prices lost 25 roubles per tonne to 5,200 roubles in North Caucasus, SovEcon said.

It said sunseed prices rose last week for the first time since September, adding 200 roubles to 9,200 roubles per tonne, after prices had reached their bottom, while sunoil prices eased to 33,425 roubles per tonne.

Russian white sugar prices have finally reversed the trend to an upwards one with some refineries having finished the processing season, IKAR said. It said ex-factory prices in Krasnodar rose to 21,000 roubles and $668 per tonne from 20,200 roubles and $605.

29.11.11

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