News
30.06.2009
Russian grain export prices stable
Russian grain export prices remained stable last week with little trade, while domestic prices kept declining due to seasonal factors, analysts said on Monday. New crop ordinary wheat export prices were basically unchanged at around $180 per tonnne FOB Novorossiisk with the situation fragile due to few contracts and very weak demand, the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) said.
Most offer prices on the domestic market have lost some 50 roubles ($1.61) per tonne on average, SovEcon agricultural market analysts said. Most old crop grain prices declined by some $10, except for maize, which rose slightly to $149 per tonne in Krasnodar, IKAR said. Prices of new crop barley, harvesting of which has just started, have fallen to $135 following a plunge of prices in neighbouring Ukraine, it said.
SovEcon said traders are setting new crop barley bid prices at 2,500-3,000 roubles per tonne, including carriage paid to elevators in Novorossiisk. Export prices are expected to be in the region of $140-$145 per tonne FOB Novorossiisk. "Traders are expecting bid prices to fall shortly, while producers insist on in-silo prices no lower than 3,000-3,500 roubles ($112.5 - $96.43) per tonne," it said.
"Taking into account acute competition with barley from Ukraine, the price of which is in the region of $130 per tonne, traders may prove to be right," SovEcon said. It said some traders have announced bid prices for new crop fourth-grade wheat at 3,500-4,000 roubles per tonne CPT elevators. But SovEcon expects actual prices at the start of the purchase campaign to be higher. In the meantime, IKAR has cut its 2009 crop forecast to 94 million tonnes from a previous 97 million on heat in the Central Black Soil region, an unusually cool and damp summer in Western Siberia and drought in some regions along the Volga river and southern Urals.
Reuters
