Prices for Black Sea grain go down as Omicron poses new risks
A sharp fall in prices is observed in the Black Sea basin in the wake of the other exchanges, as a consequence of the Omicron coronavirus variant global spread, the Agritel consultancy reports.
It is noted that the export taxes in Russia will rise from 78.30 USD/t at present to 80.80 USD/t for the period from 1st to 7th December. The competitiveness of Russian origins will be tested today with the Egyptian wheat tender.
"Temperatures are currently returning to positive territory in Kyiv, before a new cold spell expected in the next few days. However, markets are not showing any concern about it so far," the report reads.
In the European market, a sharp decline in prices developed on Friday [26 November – ed.] amid fears about the consequences of the Omicron variant. The markets are therefore facing very high volatility. Agritel admits that the market has to wait about 15 days before having more clues about consequences.
Egypt is taking advantage of the fall in prices to launch a new call for wheat tenders for the period from 9 to 20 January. Jordan is buying 120,000 t of feed barley.
In Australia, concerns about wheat quality remain due to heavy rainfall at harvest time. This is providing support on Euronext with December prices continuing to fluctuate around 300 EUR/t.
The EU wheat export figures only include 822,000 t of French origin due to technical problems related to the collection of exported volumes from third countries. In this context, it is difficult to interpret the EU export activity, considering that France has exported more than 3 mln t since the beginning of the campaign, analysts comment.
The price of the Euronext corn also fell on Friday in the wake of wheat. While the harvest in France is coming to an end, according to the Minister of Agriculture, there is still about 12.5% of the area to be harvested in Ukraine.
In the American market, wheat and soybean prices fell sharply on Friday amid concerns about demand in a context of aggravating global health context. However, the US markets rebound in pre-opening this morning.
Corn was supported by above expectations' export inspections released at 1.429 mln t.
New crop grain was 95% harvested in Ukraine as of 25 November.
Since the start of 2021/22, staple grains export from Ukraine has increased by 17.6% to 24.19 mln t.