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The lowest offer in a wheat purchase tender by state Egyptian buyer GASC which closed on Thursday was $174.74 a tonne free on board (FOB) for French wheat, traders said. The offer was made for 60,000 tonnes, they said. No purchase has yet been made and results are expected later on Thursday, traders said. GASC is seeking shipment from Oct. 11 to 20. Black Sea wheat has dominated recent purchases by GASC. But Paris wheat futures touched contract lows on Wednesday and Thursday, partly on fears that French wheat was uncompetitive in export markets. Along with French wheat, offers were made of Ukrainian, Russian and Romanian wheat, traders said. There were no offers of U.S. wheat, they said. Traders said these offers were submitted to GASC in the first round of the tender on Thursday in dollars a tonne FOB: Shipper FOB Origin Tonnes Remarks Soufflet 174.74 France 60,000 Glencore 178.89 Russia 55,000 Bunge 178.91 Russia 55,000 Dreyfus 178.94 Russia 60,000 Venus 178.99 Ukraine 55,000 Granit 179.90 France 60,000 Vitol 181.88 Russia 60,000 Lecureur 182.50 France 60,000 Olam 182.70 Russia 60,000 Union Co. 183.13 Russia 60,000 Bunge 184.74 France 60,000 Bordeaux or Dunkirk BTG 184.75 Russia 55,000 Invivo 184.87 France 60,000 Cargill 185.60 France 60,000 Nidera 185.88 Romania 60,000 ADM 185.92 Romania 60,000 Alegrow 186.00 Russia 60,000 ADM 186.92 France 60,000 Traders also said these freight (ocean shipping) offers were made to transport the wheat purchased in the tender, in dollars per tonne: Freight Offer Destination NNC 9.00 Russia Union Co. 9.29 Taman NNC 10.69 Taman UME 9.48 Tuapse NNC 13.70 Nikolaev Venus 13.02 Nikolaev NNC 13.50 France In its last wheat tender on Aug. 28, GASC has bought 55,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat at $177.20 a tonne fob basis plus a $13.60 a tonne freight (ocean shipping) charge. (Reporting by Michael Hogan, Maha El Dahan, Valerie Parent and Gus Trompiz; Editing by David Holmes)

In August 2015, the volumes of grain transshipment for exports through the deep-sea ports of Russia totaled 1.965 mln tonnes (51% of the general monthly exports), which became the record index for the reporting month, declared Igor Pavensky, Deputy Director of the strategic management department of Rusagrotrans CJSC, on September 2.
He noted that the port of Tuapse exceeded the results of August 2014 in 4.7 times, and exported 235 thsd tonnes of grains, which set the absolute record for the reporting month.
Taman port shipped over 0.5 mln tonnes of grains, which became the historical monthly record for the reporting port. In August, the port of Novorossiysk exported 1.22 mln tonnes of grains, against 1.39 mln tonnes in the same month last season.
In August 2015, the export supplies of Russian grains will reach 3.65 mln tonnes, as opposed to 3.4-3.5 mln tonnes according to official data. Such differences are explained by the fact that due to the need for calculating of the export duties, traders register and export grain cargoes at temporary declarations, so not all grain volumes come to the official statistics, added I.Pavensky.
At the same time, the experts forecasted that in September, grain exports will reduce to 3.2 mln tonnes, due to the lack of traditional export activity in terms of significant RUR/USD fluctuations.

The poor quality, as well as quantity, of the US soft red winter wheat harvest was laid bare in data showing that on some criteria, the crop rated at the lowest on data going back more than 20 years.

US Wheat Associates, which promotes US wheat exports, advised buyers "to ensure that their purchases [of US soft red winter wheat] meet their expectations" after highlighting the setback to the crop from unusually wet weather.

The crop, by volume, fell by 14.6% to a five-year low of 388.9m bushels (10.6m tonnes) this year, as a weaker yield compounded the dent from lower sowings.

However, the biggest impact from undue wetness was seen in quality, with excessive moisture fuelling the spread of fungal infections and, in ripe crops, spurring sprouting in kernels which reduces their milling specifications.

The soft red winter wheat crop, the type traded in Chicago, was, unusually, graded 3 overall – below the level needed to meet delivery against futures, without discounts.

Egypt will ban rice exports again as of Sept. 1 to satisfy domestic consumption, the ministry of trade and industry said Thursday. The ministry has yet to decide the duration of the ban, according to Sayed Abu Qomsan, a deputy to the minister.
Egypt is expected to produce 2.7 million metric tons (MT) of milled rice in the 2015-2016 season while its annual consumption is estimated at 3.6 million MT.  The 750,000 MT gap will be filled from existing stocks, the ministry said in a statement.
Egypt had allowed the export of its medium grain rice last October with an export tax of $280 per MT, on condition that traders sell the government one MT of rice at 2,000 Egyptian pounds ($255.43) for every MT of rice exported.  Thursday's statement said any export licenses granted according to the 2014 allowance could still be used.
Egyptian medium grain rice mainly competes with U.S. and Australian rice in Jordan, as well as Russian, Italian, and Indian medium grain rice on the Turkish market.  However, traders had argued the export tax and regulations imposed made exports non-profitable.
Indeed, official rice import statistics for Turkey do not indicate any Egyptian rice imports for 2014, nor for the period of January-June 2015.  There are no official figures available on Jordanian rice imports for 2015.  However, black market trade has happened in the past and is expected to continue in spite of the newly imposed ban.
Egypt first imposed a ban on exports in 2008 saying it needed to save the rice for local consumption and wanted to discourage rice farmers from growing the crop to save water. The government has used the tactic at other times as well, including a 2013 ban that helped the government build up stocks.

Aug 31 Chicago soybean futures fell
on Monday with the market on track for a second month of losses,
on the prospect for near-record U.S. production adding to
all-time high supplies from South America earlier this year.
Wheat and corn were also set to drop for a second month as
rising global supplies drag down grain prices.
Wheat has given up more than 20 percent of its value
since the beginning of July, while corn has lost 11
percent during the period and soybeans have fallen 15
percent in two months.
"It is the supply story in grain markets," said Phin
Ziebell, agribusiness economist with National Australia Bank.
"U.S. weather is looking largely favourable, Black Sea
supply is good and we have ample soybean supplies coming from
Brazil."
Chicago Board of Trade actively traded November soybeans
slid 0.6 percent to $8.80-1/4 a bushel by 0243 GMT,
December corn eased 0.1 percent to $3.47-3/4 a bushel and
wheat fell 0.2 percent to $4.83 a bushel.
Soybeans drew some support on Friday from forecasts of dry
weather in parts of the U.S. Midwest but the market could not
retain those gains with plentiful supplies flooding the market.
Egypt's state grain buyer booked 55,000 tonnes of Ukrainian
wheat in an international tender at around $177 per tonne
free-on-board (FOB), one day after buying Russian wheat for
roughly $180 a tonne FOB.
No U.S. wheat was offered at either tender because prices
were seen as uncompetitive.
In other news, Canada was storing 43 percent less canola and
about one-third less wheat and oats at mid-summer than a year
ago, as brisk exports ate away at supplies, according to a
Reuters survey.
Reuters surveyed 13 traders and analysts ahead of Statistics
Canada's Sept. 3 report on crop stocks as of July 31, 2015,
which marks the end of the 2014/15 marketing year. The report
gauges how much crop was in the system ahead of the harvest in
the world's No. 6 wheat producer and biggest canola grower.
Large speculators raised their net long position in CBOT
corn futures in the week to Aug. 25, regulatory data released on
Friday showed.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly
commitments of traders report also showed that noncommercial
traders, a category that includes hedge funds, increased their
net short position in CBOT wheat and switched to a net short
position in soybeans.

ranceAgriMer et ARVALIS-Institut du végétal réalisent chaque année une enquête sur la qualité de la récolte française de blé, véritable référence pour tous les acteurs de la filière, utilisateurs et acheteurs, en France comme à l'étranger. Les résultats définitifs seront présentés au prochain Conseil spécialisé céréales du 9 septembre 2015.
Pour la première fois, FranceAgriMer publie en amont trois bulletins hebdomadaires, pour communiquer aux opérateurs les résultats partiels sur la qualité technologique des blés 2015 (protéines, poids spécifiques, temps de chute de hagberg, force boulangère…)  au fil des analyses effectuées par son laboratoire.  Des indicateurs précieux pour mieux cerner la réalité du terrain d'ici septembre !

D’après les résultats partiels analysés au 27 août :

Les teneurs moyennes en protéines sont principalement comprises entre 10,5 et 11,5 %.
Les poids spécifiques sont bons à très bons : 91 % des échantillons analysés sont supérieurs à 78 kg/hl.
Les indices de chute de Hagberg sont d’un niveau élevé : 96 % des échantillons analysés sont supérieurs à 240 secondes
Les forces boulangères sont supérieures à 170 dans près de la moitié des cas.
Ces résultats sont basés sur les analyses d’environ 90 % du nombre final d’échantillons attendu, pour le taux de protéines, le poids spécifique et l’indice de chute de Hagberg, et 76 % du nombre final d’échantillons attendu pour la force boulangère.

Consulter les résultats partiels au 27 août 2015 via le site open data de FranceAgriMer VISIONet ( lien d'accès ), ou télécharger directement le PDF en cliquant sur le fichier ci-dessous.

Egypt will accept higher moisture levels in government tenders to buy wheat for one year after an initial exemption expires at the end of August, its supply minister said on Thursday.

The decision was taken to ensure Egypt had a variety of origins from which to import wheat, Khaled Hanafi said.

Egypt, one of the world's largest wheat importers, had been accepting French wheat with a moisture level of up to 13.5 percent in its tenders with a penalty paid by traders.

Egypt's state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), began accepting wheat with more moisture a year ago, having previously set a 13 percent limit.

France is one of Egypt's most important wheat suppliers but had struggled to meet the more stringent moisture limits imposed by GASC before the exemption.

Egypt snaps up Russian wheat at a bargain price
The low price of Russian wheat was underlined at an Egyptian wheat tender, as Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, vows to corner the world's biggest wheat market.

The Egyptian state grain buyer, Gasc, purchased Russian wheat at $190.07 a tonne, including freight, the lowest price the authority has paid for wheat in years.

Gasc accepted the offered cargo of 60,000 tonnes of Russian wheat from Olam at $180.47 a tonne, plush $9.60 a tonne freight between the Black Sea and Egypt

French wheat was offered to Gasc at $187.74 a tonne excluding freight, cheap by historical standards, but undercut also by Ukrainian wheat, which was tendered at $182.99 a tonne.

Russian hopes

On Wednesday, Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, announced his intention to claim a larger share of Egyptian wheat supply.

Speaking after a meeting with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah, Mr Putin said that Russia exported 4m tonnes of wheat to Egypt last year.

This made up 40% of total demand from Egypt, the world's largest wheat importer.

Gasc has purchased 1.005m tonnes of wheat since the start of the fiscal year, in July, with wheat from Black Sea origins proving especially competitive.

Quality controls

But Egypt on Thursday extended the exemption to wheat quality import controls for government purchases, which could open up selling opportunities from other destinations.

World grain stocks to hit 29-year high, says IGC
World grain stocks are to end the new season at their highest in nearly 30 years, the International Grains Council said, ditching expectations of a fall in inventories as it upgraded to a record its wheat output estimate.

Global inventories of wheat and coarse grains combined will rise by 2m tonnes to 447m tonnes in 2015-16, "a 29-year peak", the IGC said, reversing expectations that production would fall behind consumption for the first time in three years.

The revision reflected a hike of 18m tonne to 1.99m tonnes in the forecast for world grains production, "tied to larger-than-expected wheat and barley crops in the [former Soviet Union] and the European Union", the council said.

The world wheat crop was upgraded by 10m tonnes to 720m tonnes, putting it in line with last season's record high.

Russia plans to increase grain export supplying to Egypt, declared Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, on August 26.
At the same time, V.Putin reminded that in 2014 Russia exported nearly 4 mln tonnes of grains to Egypt, and covered 40% of the demand in such commodities in Egypt.
According to the Russian President, in future Russia will increase grain supplies to the country. Therefore, to date the Presidents of both countries discussed the prospects of Russian direct participation in construction of the certain facilities of grain infrastructure at the Egyptian territory.

Yield forecasts for spring and summer crops at the EU-28

level have been revised downwards for the second
consecutive bulletin due to continued hot and mostly dry
conditions in large parts of Europe. Maize and sunflower
crops were particularly affected. The yield outlook for
winter cereals is slightly improved thanks to favourable
weather conditions in northern parts of Europe. Overall,
the yield forecast for total cereals dropped to almost 10%
below last year’s level, and to 1% below the five-year
average.

UAE is to finish establishing 25 silos worth US$300 million in March 2016, chairman of the Egyptian Holding Company for Silos and Storage (EHCSS) Mahmoud Abdel Hamid said.
01 September 2015
UAE is to finish establishing 25 silos worth US$300 million in March 2016, chairman of the Egyptian Holding Company for Silos and Storage (EHCSS) Mahmoud Abdel Hamid said Tuesday.
Abdel Hamid told Amwal Al Ghad that the Emirati project aims at implementing silos in 17 governorates to add more than 1.5 million tonnes of wheat as storage capacity.

Chairman Abdel Hamid stated that EHCSS is establishing 11 silos while the Egyptian agriculture ministry is implementing around 10 silos.  In addition, the General Company for Silos and storage (GCSS) is establishing four silos

The Emirati project is to provide around 10 percent of the wasted wheat annually estimated at 2.7 billion Egyptian pounds per year.

The world wheat market, having ridden out jitters over dryness in Europe and Australia, faced fresh concerns with a lack of rain raising questions over Russian sowings, while excessive wetness dogs South American prospects.

Russian farmers – whose grains production this year has far exceeded levels feared late last year, when a lack of rain dogged early development of winter crops – face another dry sowings period in many areas.

"It's very dry in an area stretching from the Ukraine to central Russia," said traders at a major European commodities house, which has substantial interests in the former Soviet Union.

"There are fears that this may delay planting in what is a fairly restricted window before the winter sets in."

'More precipitation needed'

The comments follow a caution from the International Grains Council last week that dry weather had already raised doubts over the extent of Ukrainian rapeseed sowings completed within the "very short" ideal sowings window of August 10-25.

"Plantings are officially forecast at 823,000 hectares, unchanged year on year," although below the five-year average 1.0m hectares, the council said.

"However, owing to dryness, fieldwork was estimated to be just 15% complete by August 21 – well behind normal.

"More precipitation is needed in order to secure timely sowings and prevent a likely steep drop in output."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has disclosed that the country, the third-largest exporter of wheat, is keen to increase the volume of its grainexports to the Egyptian market further.

President Putin has made this statement on last Wednesday subsequent to meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi held in the Russian capital city of Moscow.

At present, Egypt is the No.1 importer of wheat. It has imported 4 million tonnes of the cereal from Russia in 2014, and the figure represents 40% of the overall consumption of the North African country.

Interacting with media early this month, the Russian Premier Dmitry Medvedev has stated that the volume of exports of grains, including several crops exclusive of wheat, will grow to the levels of up to 7 million tonnes per annum.

Putin has also revealed that he has talked on the prospects of Russia s involvement in the development of grain infrastructure in Egypt with the Egyptian President as well.

The Russia President has disclosed that the Egyptian producers are reaping benefits from Russia s retaliatory ban on select food imports from the EU and the USA, and added that their shipping of food products to Russia has increased by over 8% in H1, 2015 from the exports figures in H1, 2014, due to this prohibition.

Le Conseil international des céréales (CIC) estime, dans un rapport du 27 août, la production mondiale de grains à 1.988 Mt en 2015-16 (contre 1.970 Mt le mois dernier), conduisant à un niveau de disponibilités jamais atteint.
 
Cette nouvelle estimation de récolte est notamment reliée à une production de blé et d'orge plus importante que prévue en mer Noire et en Europe. Il en est de même pour le maïs et le sorgho en Europe. La sécheresse a cependant touché le maïs dans l'UE et l'Ukraine et le blé de printemps au Canada.
 
Ainsi, « avec un large stock de report issu de la campagne précédente (445 Mt), les disponibilités totales sont attendues en hausse d'environ 10 Mt à un nouveau record » de 2.432 Mt de grains, d'après le rapport.
 
La consommation mondiale est, quant à elle, évaluée à 1.985 Mt de grains (contre 1.978 Mt le mois précédent), avec des utilisations pour l'alimentation humaine, animale et la transformation industrielle. Mais, « contrairement aux dernières années, l'augmentation de la demande en 2015-16 devrait surtout être influencée par la croissance des besoins en alimentation humaine », d'après le rapport du CIC.

PRINTABLE VERSION   EMAIL TO A FRIEND   RSS FEEDS 13:14 UK, 14th Aug 2015, by Agrimoney.com
Russian wheat exports still lagging thanks to tax uncertainty
The agribusiness Black Earth Farming has flagged the slow pace of Russian wheat shipments, as uncertainties over a new export levy and a slow start to the harvest put the pace of exports 60% behind last year.

"The imposition of export levies increase uncertainty in the company's operating environment," said Black Earth president and chief executive Richard Warburton.

The company also forecast rising global grain prices to come, as demand picks up.

Black Earth Farming expects total Russian grain exports in the region of 28mn tons, down 9.8% from 31m tons in the previous season, in line with other forecasts.

Mixed conditions

"Growing conditions have been mixed across Russia," Black Earth Farming said.

The start of the Russian wheat harvest was delayed by rains, however progress has since been good thanks to warm and dry weather.

Black Earth Farming reports that winter wheat yields "are generally good and only slightly lower than 2014's above-trend yields," while the potential for corn and sunflower yields is also good.

"With approximately 60% harvested, winter wheat yields average 3.8 tonnes per hectare," Black Earth Farming said.

However Black Earth Farming does note that early rains have lowered wheat quality, which will mean that there is less milling-grade wheat available, and more feed wheat, although continued dry weather would improve quality.

Afin d’appuyer la filière française dans sa démarche d’exportation vers les pays de l’Union Européenne, le Pôle Animation Export de FranceAgriMer organise en concertation avec les professionnels du secteur la tenue de 5 conférences :
- Espagne : Vendredi 25 septembre à Madrid

- Portugal : Mardi 29 septembre à Porto

- Italie : Vendredi 2 octobre à Rome – Conférence réalisée en partenariat avec RomaCereali

- Royaume Uni : Vendredi 23 octobre à Londres – Conférence réalisée en partenariat avec le Gafta

- Grèce et Chypre : Vendredi 30 octobre à Athènes

 

Inscription réservée aux opérateurs de la filière, à effectuer auprès du Pôle Animation Export : veronique.looten@franceagrimer.fr et pierre.silvera@franceagrimer.fr