Agriculture & Food

Foreign media news on November 21: French wheat spot prices continued to rise in the past week, hitting a multi-year high. Due to the tight global wheat supply, EU wheat prices hit a new high in more than a decade.

u3000u3000 On Thursday (November 18), the delivery price of first-class French wheat at the port of Rouen in France was US$347/ton, an increase of US$3 from a week ago. The price range for the past 52 weeks has ranged from US$240 to US$347 per ton.

The price of second-class wheat in Shanghe, Argentina was US$310/ton, a decrease of US$7 from a week ago; the price of No. 2 hard red winter wheat in the United States was US$379/ton, a US$1 decrease from a week ago; the price of soft red winter wheat in the United States was US$355 /Ton, up 3 dollars from a week ago.

u3000u3000On the Euronext in Paris, France, the March 2022 wheat futures, the most actively traded on Friday, closed at 297 euros/ton, up 3 euros or 1.0% from a week ago, while Chicago wheat futures rose 0.7% over the same period.

However, with European wheat prices rising to a 14-year high, the prospects for export demand began to be worrying. This also prompted the consulting agency Strategic Grains to lower EU wheat export expectations in its November report, from 32 million tons expected a month ago. Reduced to 30.4 million tons. The relatively high price of wheat will also affect the demand of the feed industry. Therefore, the strategic company reduced the EU’s wheat ending stocks for the 2021/22 season to more than 12 million tons, which is more than 2 million tons lower than last month’s forecast.

u3000u3000 FranceAgriMer, the crop office under the French Ministry of Agriculture, has lowered its forecast of soft wheat exports from France to EU member states by 200,000 tons to 7.8 million tons due to declining feed demand. France’s soft wheat exports to non-EU member states are expected to be 9.4 million tons, down 200,000 tons from last month’s forecast due to increased wheat production in Australia and Argentina. The French Ministry of Agriculture has raised the forecast value of French soft wheat production in 2021/22 to 35.456 million tons, with a sown area of 4.974 million hectares and a yield of 7.13 tons per hectare.

u3000u3000 According to data released by the European Commission, EU wheat production in the 2021/22 season is expected to be 137.6 million tons, which is lower than the September forecast of 139 million tons. Production figures for some member states have been revised down, including France, Romania and Hungary. In comparison, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that the EU wheat production in 2021/22 will be 139.4 million tons, and the International Grains Council expects the EU wheat production to be 138.5 million tons.

According to data from the European Commission, as of November 14, the export volume of wheat from the 27 EU countries reached 10.1 million tons (9.787 million tons last week) and 941,000 tons of imports ( 881,000 tons last week). Algeria is the number one destination, importing 1.434 million tons, accounting for 14.3%; Egypt imported 1.201 million tons, accounting for 12.0%.

u3000u3000 At the Port of Rouen, the number one wheat export port in France, the port operator Haropa said that in the week ending November 10, the export volume of wheat at the port of Rouen was 205,032 tons, up from 104,600 tons in the previous week.

u3000u3000 Euronext position data shows that as of November 12, investment funds and financial institutions held 155,856 net long positions in the Euronext milling wheat futures and options market, up from 138,660 a week ago.

u3000u3000 On Friday, the Euro exchange rate was 1 Euro to 1.13 U.S. dollars, and 1 Euro to 1.15 U.S. dollars a week ago.