MED-Amin network

Les agriculteurs sont majoritairement satisfaits de l’évolution de la campagne agricole. Les cultures sont à un stade végétatif très satisfaisant. Dans certaines régions, les pluies ont retardé les travaux d’entretien, mais il n’y aucun souci majeur.


Dans leur grande majorité et quelle que soit leur région, les agriculteurs sont satisfaits de l’évolution de la campagne agricole. Les précipitations, qui constituent habituellement le facteur limitant, ont en effet été largement supérieures à la normale. Dans la Chaouia, «l’état des cultures céréalières est variable -moyen ou bon- selon les parcelles, le type de sol et les soins apportés par l’agriculteur», souligne Abdelilah El Amile, un agriculteur de la région. Le stade prédominant va du tallage au début de la montaison, même pour les semis tardifs.
Les agriculteurs en sont aux travaux d’entretien, dont la première étape porte sur les apports d’azote de couverture. La majorité des premiers apports ont été effectués en janvier, et certains agriculteurs ont même procédé au deuxième apport là où c’était nécessaire, sachant que les bonnes précipitations entraînent un lessivage d’une partie des réserves d’azote dans le sol. C’est justement la faiblesse de cet engrais par rapport aux besoins réels des plantes, conjuguée à l’accumulation d’eau et le froid, qui est l’origine du jaunissement apparu dans pratiquement toutes les régions. Cette sous-utilisation des fertilisants s’explique en général par le manque de moyens (après une campagne difficile), un souci d’économies, un déficit de sensibilisation, la cherté des produits en raison de la spéculation des intermédiaires et le manque d’encadrement. Dans tous les cas, le réchauffement de fin d’hiver au début du printemps permettra à tous les champs de reprendre un bon état végétatif.

Esta semana el precio español de los cereales en los mercados mayoristas ha ido a la baja, siguiendo la tendencia del mercado comuntario. El euro ha subido un poco con respecto al dólar, por lo que los cereales comunitarios han perdido competitividad en el mercado internacional. Además, la bajada se ha acentuado por la salida de inversionistas del mercado de los cereales.

En España, en los mercados mayoristas, el precio del trigo duro es el que mas ha bajado (-2 €/tn), si bien continúa siendo muy elevado 370 €/tn. El precio del trigo blando ha caído 1 €/tn hasta los 194,24 €/tn, el del maíz (- 0,89€/tn) hasta los 174,35 €/tn y el de la cebada (-0,42 €/tn) hasta los 182,97 €/tn, de acuerdo con la información proporcionada por la Asociación de Comercio de Cereales y Oleaginosas de España (ACCOE) para la semana 5 (del 26 de enero al 1 de febrero).

Los precios mencionados son de comercio al por mayor, siendo la mercancía nacional y/o importada, sobre vehículo en posición almacén.

Les prix à la production des produits agricoles ont globalement augmenté de 0,3 % en décembre 2014. Sur un an, le repli atteint toujours 5,5 %, indique l'Insee dans ses Informations rapides du 30 janvier 2015.
 
« Les prix des céréales continuent d'augmenter vivement en décembre (+5,4 %). Les opérateurs de marché ont notamment réagi à la hausse, craignant une possible taxation par la Russie de ses propres exportations de blé tendre qui n'a finalement pas eu lieu. »
 

Saudi Arabia bought 690,000 tons of hard wheat via a tender, the country’s main state grain agency Grain Silos and Flour Mills Organization (GSFMO) said on Monday.

The wheat, with 12.5 percent protein content, is for shipment during April and May, GSFMO said in a statement.

The accepted origins are the European Union, North America, South America and Australia at the option of sellers, the GSFMO said.

“I think there will be expectations that some of the purchase will be sourced in Europe, perhaps in Germany or Poland,” one trader said.

Saudi Arabia has become a major importer of hard and soft wheat since abandoning plans for self-sufficiency in wheat in 2008 as farming in the desert drained away precious water supplies.

The country aims to steadily reduce agriculture and plans to be completely reliant on imports by 2016 to save water.

GFSMO said its latest deal comprised these purchases in dollars a ton with the shipment period in 2015 in brackets:

Shipment to Jeddah Port:
- 60,000 tons hard wheat from Concordia at $252.22 C&F (Apr. 1-10)
- 60,000 tons hard wheat from Concordia at $252.22 C&F (Apr.10-20)
- 60,000 tons hard wheat from Louis Dreyfus at $250.64 C&F (Apr. 20-30)
- 60,000 tons hard wheat from Louis Dreyfus at $254.64 C&F (May 1-10)
- 55,000 tons hard wheat from ADM at $254.91 C&F (May 10-20)
- 55,000 tons hard wheat from ADM at $254.91 C&F (May 20-30)

Shipment to Dammam Port:
- 55,000 tons hard wheat from ADM at $255.96 C&F (Apr. 1-10)
- 60,000 tons hard wheat from Louis Dreyfus at $255.14 C&F (Apr. 10-20)
- 55,000 tons hard wheat from ADM at $256.96 C&F (Apr. 20-30)
- 60,000 tons hard wheat from Concordia at $257.95 C&F (May 1-10)
- 55,000 tons hard wheat from ADM at $256.45 C&F (May 10-20)
- 55,000 tons hard wheat from ADM at $258.71 C&F (May 20-30)

Several vessels loading tens of thousands of tonnes of wheat for the state buyer of Egypt, the world's largest wheat importer, are stuck in Russia's Black Sea ports ahead of the launch of an export tax in Moscow, trade sources said. After the rouble's slump against the dollar spurred grain exports, driving up domestic prices, the Russian government was forced to curb exports with informal limits and announced an export tax that will come into force on February 1.

Due to the informal curbs, these supplies for Egypt's state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), have already missed deadlines of previously agreed contracts, but traders can not change the origin of supply. "There have been negotiations to try to change the origin even to Ukraine but GASC insisted that it remains Russian," one of sources said.

The tax, or a duty on wheat exports, will amount to 15 percent of the customs price plus 7.5 euros and will be no less than 35 euros ($40) per tonne from February 1 until June 30, 2015. "There is a serious issue in Russia. There is one vessel which has only loaded 23,000 tonnes cargo so far. It is not able to load more cargo as there is no cargo moving to the port," another trader said.

If vessels are not able to get their final loading documents by February 1, trading companies will have to pay the tax, according to the third source. "GASC will not bear any extra cost if that happens as it will be the trading firms that will pay," he said.

La récente baisse du prix du pétrole, qui se prolongerait en 2015, aurait peu de conséquences sur l'agriculture, et plus généralement sur l'agroalimentaire, d'après une analyse de la Rabobank. Notons cependant que les simulations prennent en compte un prix du baril de pétrole à 67 dollars, alors qu'il frise les 45 dollars actuellement.
 
Le prix faible du pétrole ne vient que peu renforcer la pression déflationniste qui s'exerce sur les matières premières et donc les prix alimentaires. D'autre part, le pétrole n'est pas considérée comme un coût majeur de l'industrie alimentaire, d'après le rapport.
 
Mais certains secteurs vont cependant être touchés, et notamment celui de la pêche ; le fuel ayant un coût de l'ordre de 30 à 50 % de ses coûts totaux.

Agricultural, quality agro-food, supply-chain and rural districts were introduced by Italian law in 2001. With reference to European structural policies, especially rural development policy, and to the districts’ originality and relationship to the LEADER method and programmes, we wonder whether they can still form a useful part of the new programming period 2014-2020. The question is analysed in the wider context of international literature on socio-economic and economic policy, so as to stimulate broader interest, with a view to the future. A survey on national scale is presented, limited to the districts legally recognised by the Regions. A detailed historical reconstruction is given, offering a ‘reconstructive reading’ through which we clarify the actual nature of these districts, including their connections to clusters and industrial districts. We also discuss how to better link the theoretical and the legal frameworks. And we examine the connection between the basic economic mechanisms of the district theory and how the Regions have implemented them in reality. To do this, we summarised the overall conceptual framework into a few basic components for our desk research. This has led to development of a methodological definition of districts in agriculture.

Weakly hardened winter cereals in Europe

MARSBulletin_Vol23_No01.pdf 2.74 MB

Canadian wheat stocks to end 2015-16 near record low
Canadian wheat stocks will end 2015-16 at amongst their lowest on record despite an increase in plantings and a drop in consumption, officials said, foreseeing a small drop in Canola inventories too.

AAFC, the Canadian farm ministry, in its first forecast for the domestic wheat harvest this year pegged it at 30.0m tonnes – a rise of some 719,000 tonnes on the 2014 crop.

The increase reflected an expectation of a 321,000-hectare increase in plantings to 10.11m hectares, as a 4% increase in plantings of spring crop, which accounts for the great majority of Canada's wheat production, more than offsets a tumble in winter wheat seedings.

AAFC said that Canada's winter wheat sowings for 2015 plunged by 33%, "because of the late harvest" last year, which delayed the release of land for plantings.

The increase in spring wheat area will come largely in the Prairies provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where "excessive moisture" prevented sowings on significant swathes of land last year.

The area forecast is in line with that from the International Grains Council, which last week pegged Canadian wheat area, on a harvested basis, at 10.0m hectares.

Egypt's Misr Insurance Company has been awarded a new insurance policy for a grain and wheat storage silo project in Noubarya, non-executive board member Mohamed Khalifa announced Monday.
According to Khalifa, the insurance policy is with total sum insured of 125 million Egyptian pounds (US$16.4 million).

The grain and wheat storage silo project is part of the second phase of the Egyptian Supply Ministry's strategic scheme to establish 25 silos.

Furthermore, Khalifa stated that the insurance policy is to provide coverage against all risks of contractors working on the silo project in addition to the dangers of fire, theft, and burglary during the time of construction works. The project will be carried out in 14 months, he added.

* U.S. wheat ticks up after sliding 2 pct on Monday

* Market eyes Egypt tender, abundant supply weighs

* Soybeans tick up after falling for last 5 sessions (Adds details, quotes)

By Naveen Thukral

SINGAPORE, Feb 3 (Reuters) - U.S. wheat edged up on Tuesday as bargain buying supported the market which slid to a four-month low in the previous session on expectations of higher global supplies this year.

Soybeans rose half a percent, snapping a five-session losing streak, but forecasts for record output in Brazil capped gains. Corn gained after closing almost unchanged on Monday.

Chicago Board Of Trade March wheat rose 0.4 percent to $4.94-3/4 a bushel by 0235 GMT, having closed down 2 percent on Monday when prices hit a low of $4.92-1/4 a bushel, the weakest since early October.

March soybeans rose 0.5 percent to $9.64-1/4 a bushel and corn added 0.4 percent to $3.71-1/4 a bushel.

"European wheat is looking pretty cheap and there is not much concern at the moment about the state of any of the wheat crops in the northern hemisphere," said Paul Deane, senior agricultural economist at ANZ Bank in Melbourne.

A major snowstorm that moved through the central United States over the weekend dumped more than a foot of snow on Midwest wheat areas, providing a protective cover for the dormant crop against frigid temperatures expected later this week, agricultural meteorologists said on Monday.

But the deep snowfall will slow the movement of grain and livestock early this week from Iowa eastward to Ohio as it will take a couple days for the Midwest to dig out.

In Canada, stockpiles of wheat and canola at the end of 2014 were thought to be among the biggest in recent decades, a Reuters survey of traders and analysts showed ahead of a Statistics Canada report on Wednesday.

The market awaits results of an import tender from Egypt, the world's top importer of wheat, for signs of any demand for U.S. supplies which have been losing business.

Saudi Arabia bought 690,000 tonnes of hard wheat via a tender, the country's main state grain agency Grain Silos and Flour Mills Organisation said on Monday. The wheat, with 12.5 percent protein content, is for shipment during April and May, GSFMO said in a statement.

Private exporters reported sales of 132,600 tonnes of U.S. corn to Mexico, including 121,550 tonnes for delivery in 2014/15 and 11,050 tonnes for 2015/16, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Monday. The marketing year for corn begins on Sept. 1.

Prices at 0235 GMT Contract Last Change Pct chg Two-day chg MA 30 RSI CBOT wheat 494.75 2.00 +0.41% -1.59% 559.41 13 CBOT corn 371.25 1.50 +0.41% +0.34% 392.60 29 CBOT soy 964.25 4.75 +0.50% +0.34% 1010.25 33 CBOT rice $10.16 -$0.15 -1.46% -3.93% $11.44 18 WTI crude $50.04 $0.47 +0.95% +3.73% $49.55 63 Currencies Euro/dlr $1.134 $0.000 +0.01% +0.49% USD/AUD 0.781 0.000 +0.05% +0.50% Most active contracts Wheat, corn and soy US cents/bushel. Rice: USD per hundredweight RSI 14, exponential (Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Updated balance sheets for EU cereals, oilseeds and rice are available at

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/cereals/balance-sheets/index_en.htm

Egypt is said to be on the verge of signing a free trade agreement with the EEU, the union of former Soviet republics. The ties between Russia and Syria are also being strengthened. According to Russia, the downgrade to junk status is unjustified, with the Russian economy's strengths not being taken into account sufficiently. Kazakhstan is investing in a greenhouse centre where Dutch techniques are being used. Prices in Russia and Ukraine are moving up and down, with vegetables in Russia becoming a lot more expensive, onion prices going up in Ukraine, and potatoes getting cheaper in Crimea. And Israeli bell peppers were stopped because the products didn't meet phytosanitary demands.

L’Office chérifien des phosphates (OCP) compte lancer un fonds de 100 millions de dirhams (9,2 millions d’euros) en faveur de la recherche agricole. La décision sera appuyée par le ministère marocain de l’Enseignement supérieur.

Pour sa part, le ministère injectera 100 millions de dirhams dans la mise en place du nouveau fonds et la promotion de la recherche scientifique. La décision de l’OCP intervient, selon l’Agence Ecofin, après que son fonds de 90 millions de dirhams consacré à la recherche et développement (R&D) sur le phosphate a connu «un succès foudroyant».

Ce succès a été surtout marqué, en dehors du continent africain, suite à la prise de participation de 10% au capital du fabricant d’engrais brésilien, Fertilizantes Heringer SA.

La stratégie expansionniste est également adoptée en interne. Elle a d’ailleurs permis au groupe OCP de doubler en un an ses exportations de fertilisants vers le continent africain.

UkrAgroConsult informs that preliminary Agenda of the XII International Conference “Black Sea Grain: Future is Now” is already available.Please check the Agenda here.

“Black Sea Grain” Conference is a premiere event for Ukrainian and Black Sea grain market, annually bringing together leading experts and industry operators from all over the world.

Currently, more than 120 delegates from 20 countries have registered to participate in the Conference. Don’t miss an Early Bird tariff for registration till Feb 28, 2015.

The XII International Conference “Black Sea Grain-2015” will take place on April 22-23, 2015 at the “InterContinental” hotel, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Оrganizer of the conference - consulting agency “UkrAgroConsult”, Exclusive Financial Sponsor  - Credit Agricole Bank; Sponsor – Filhet Allard Maritime.

The workshop on food security and nutrition information system was co-organized by DG DEVCO, ECHO and JRC. JRC-Ispra took the lead in the technical organization of the workshop. The objective was to build the consensus around the new projects recently funded by the Commission (both DEVCO and ECHO) or in the pipeline so that they effectively respond to the expectations of the two DGs.

Synthese_seminaire_SAN_Bxl_201409.pdf 2.09 MB

L’Algérie a-t-elle vocation à rester dépendante des marchés extérieurs pour son approvisionnement en céréales ? Pour le DG de l’Office Algérien interprofessionnel des céréales (OAIC), Mohamed Belabdi, cette tendance peut être renversée d’autant, affirme-t-il, « que le pari pour ce qui concerne le blé dur et l’orge, est à notre portée ».

Pour Mohamed Belabdi, Invité, mardi matin, de la rédaction de la chaine 3 de la Radio Algérienne, le respect des itinéraires techniques, l’utilisation par les agriculteurs de semences performantes et l’introduction des irrigations d’appoint sur une superficie projetées de 600.000 hectares figurent parmi les atouts pouvant permettre à la filière céréalière de rebondir.

Si ces itinéraires sont respectés, il est possible, ajoute-t-il de parvenir, rapidement et dans une première étape, à une production moyenne de 30 quintaux à l’hectare « permettant d’engranger environ 90 millions de quintaux de céréales » par saison.

Le DG de l’OAIC estime, par ailleurs, que le niveau de la superficie céréalière, en Algérie, constitué de quelque 3,2 millions d’hectares représentent un « point fort » par rapport aux besoins du pays. « Ce qu’il faut, dit-il c’est de faire en sorte d’améliorer ce patrimoine ».

Quand on lui rappelle que les importations céréalières, constituées notamment de blé dur et d’orge, ont couté, en 2014, quelque 3,5 milliards de dollars au pays, le DG de l’OAIC explique qu’il s’agit là des conséquences de la situation de sécheresse observée durant le mois d’avril.

Il tient cependant à préciser que les quantités de produits céréaliers importées ne sont pas toutes consommées, certaines étant utilisées pour constituer des stocks stratégiques « afin de mettre le pays à l’abri des fluctuations du marché mondial ».

Relevant que l’Algérie a cessé d’importer des semences, depuis 1996, il explique que celle-ci a, cependant, besoins d’en ramener de l’extérieur « pour améliorer le patrimoine génétique de ces dernières et augmenter ainsi leur rendement ».

Dans cette perspective, il annonce que l’office vient a signé, récemment, un  protocole d’accord avec un groupe Français spécialisé dans la production de semences céréalières pour la création, en Algérie, d’une société mixte chargée de ces activités.  

Amené, à un moment, à s’exprimer sur le gaspillage du pain par les ménages (quelque 7 millions de baguettes/jour sont jetés quotidiennement dans les poubelles), M. Belabdi observe que cette situation n’incombe pas au seul consommateur. Pour lui, il est primordial d’appliquer et de faire respecter un cahier des charges permettant aux boulangers de produire un pain de qualité, qui se conserve et non celui qui devient immangeable le jour d’après.   

Egypt, the world’s top wheat importer, has bought around 3.3 million tonnes of wheat during the since July 1, the start of the fiscal year, vice chairman of state buyer GASC said.

According to Mamdouh Abdel Fattah – vice chairman of the state-run General Authority for Supply Commodities ( GASC ) – Egypt has bought those amounts of wheat at a total cost of 6.4 billion Egyptian pounds (US$863.8 million) on the international markets.

The Egyptian top official further referred to Amwal Al Ghad that Egypt’s wheat stocks for its subsidised bread programme would last until mid-May, 2015.

The local wheat harvest in Egypt will begin by mid-April, Abdel Fattah stated, saying it is expected that the state would receive around 3.7 tonnes of wheat.

Egypt usually purchases around 10 million tons of wheat per year from international markets and uses a mixture of domestic and imported wheat for its subsidised bread programme.