European wheat market: French wheat prices trailing international wheat prices lower

 

On Thursday (March 31), the delivery price of first-class French wheat at the French port of Rouen was $427/ton, down $14 from a week earlier
.
The price range over the past 52 weeks is $240 to $460 per ton
.

 

On Thursday, the price of second-class wheat in Shanghe, Argentina was 396 yuan/ton, down 5 dollars from a week ago; the price of No.
2 hard red winter wheat in the United States was 459 dollars/ton, down 26 dollars from a week ago; the price of No.
2 soft red winter wheat in the United States was 421 US dollars / ton, down 31 US dollars from a week ago
.

 

On Euronext in Paris, the most actively traded May 2022 wheat futures closed at 365.
25 euros per ton on Friday, down 16 euros or 4.
20% from a week ago, while Chicago wheat futures fell 10.
68% over the same period
.

 

　　In addition to focusing on the situation in Russia and Ukraine, European traders are also evaluating the latest import tenders
.
In Wednesday's tender, Tunisia bought 125,000 tonnes of wheat and Algeria bought 600,000 tonnes, which could lead to more sales for EU wheat, including Romania and France
.
However, transaction prices were relatively low, dampening market sentiment
.

 

　　The global market will lose about 11 million tonnes of wheat in 2021/22 due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the French company Strategic Grains said on March 17
.
Strategic Grains lowered its forecast for Ukrainian wheat exports by 6 million tons and for Russia by 5 million tons
.
Strategic Grains raised EU-27 wheat exports for the current season by 2 million tonnes to 32.
5 million tonnes
.
On March 18, FranceAgriMer, the crop office under the French Ministry of Agriculture, said the EU was in a "prime time" to fill the gap in Black Sea grain exports
.

 

　　On March 9, FranceAgriMEr raised its forecast for soft wheat exports outside the EU in 2021/22 (July-June) from 8.
9 million tons in February to 9.
7 million tons; soft wheat ending stocks were lowered to 296 tons 10,000 tons, down from the 3.
58 million tons forecast in February
.
FranceAgriMer expects French soft wheat exports to total 17.
6 million tonnes, up from a forecast of 16.
8 million tonnes in February
.
On the same day, the USDA maintained its forecast for EU wheat exports at 37.
5 million tons in its supply and demand report, up from 29.
74 million tons in the previous year
.
The USDA believes that Australia and India will benefit mainly from the reduction in Russian-Ukrainian wheat exports
.

 

　　On February 24, the European Commission lowered its forecast for EU soft wheat production in 2021/22 to 129.
8 million tonnes, down from a forecast of 130.
5 million tonnes a month earlier
.
Wheat ending stocks are also lowered 0.
7 million tons from 13.
3 million to 12.
6 million; however, the export forecast remains unchanged at 32 million
.

 

　　EU-27 wheat exports in 2021/22 (July to June) reached 19.
87 million tonnes as of March 27 (19.
62 million tonnes last week and 20.
48 million tonnes in the same period last year), according to European Commission data.
The volume was 1.
9 million tons (1.
88 million tons last week and 1.
66 million tons in the same period last year)
.
The number one buyer is Algeria, but the import volume is still lower than the same period last year, with 2.
95 million tons of wheat imported so far (2.
95 million tons last week, 4.
57 million tons last year); its share is 14.
9% (15.
0% last week, 22.
3% last year) %)
.
The second largest buyer was Egypt, which imported 2.
04 million tons (1.
95 million tons last week and 445,000 tons last year); its share was 10.
3% (9.
9% last week and 2.
2% last year)
.
The third largest buyer was China, which imported 2.
04 million tons (2.
04 million tons last week, compared with 1.
77 million tons in the same period last year), with a share of 10.
3% (10.
4% last week and 8.
6% in the same period last year)
.

 

　　Investment funds and financial institutions were net long 175,478 contracts in Euronext milling wheat futures and options markets as of March 25, up from 172,463 contracts a week earlier, Euronext holdings data showed
.

 

　　The euro was trading at $1.
11 on Friday, compared with $1.
10 a week ago
.