EU Grains End Mixed

06/11/14 -- EU grains were mixed with wheat lower and corn and rapeseed mostly a little higher.

At the close Nov 14 London wheat was down GBP1.00/tonne at GBP117.80/tonne, Nov 14 Paris wheat finished EUR2.00/tonne lower at EUR165.75/tonne, Jan 15 corn was EUR0.50/tonne higher at EUR146.25/tonne and Feb 15 rapeseed ended up EUR1.75/tonne to EUR335.75/tonne.

Lanworth estimated the EU-28 2015 wheat crop at 149 MMT, a 3% fall compared to this year, although still the third highest on record.

They also forecast a drop in the size of the EU-28 rapeseed crop next year, predicting production 2% lower at 22.3 MMT.

Brussels said that they'd issued 517 TMT worth of soft wheat export licences this past week, down from the 729 TMT granted a week ago. Still, the cumulative season to date total is now 10.3 MMT versus the 9.4 MMT released this time a year go when exports went on to set a record.

You will recall that the EU Commission sees final soft wheat exports down by almost 17% in 2014/15 versus last season.

Russia said that it had harvested 108.3 MMT of grains so far off 96.3% of the intended area. That total includes 61.6 MMT of wheat, 21 MMT of barley and 10 MMT of corn. The corn harvest is 83.8% done so far. The Urals region is the notable laggard, with harvesting there only 82% complete.

Russia’s Ag Ministry estimated the country's 2014/15 grain exports at 30.0 MMT versus 25.3 MMT in 2013/14.

SovEcon estimated Russia’s 2015 grain crop at below 90.0 MMT, a decline of at least 17% on this year.

The FAO's AMIS raised their world wheat production estimate for 2014/15 from 719 MMT to 723 MMT. "Production in 2014 (is) to exceed last month’s forecast on larger harvests in the EU and Ukraine," they said.

"In Russia and Ukraine, planting is complete and unusually cold weather in some regions has caused the crop to go into dormancy earlier than usual," they noted.

"EU, winter wheat planting has begun and conditions are favourable," they added.

At home, a record near 642 TMT of wheat was milled in the UK in September, according to DEFRA.