Russian wheat prices down with weaker rouble and global benchmark

MOSCOW: Russian wheat export prices fell at the end of last week amid decline in the rouble currency  and the global benchmark contract in Chicago, analysts said on Monday.

Black Sea prices for Russian wheat with 12.5 percent protein content were at $215 a tonne free on board (FOB) at the end of last week, down $10 on the week, IKAR agriculture consultancy said in a note.

SovEcon, another Moscow-based consultancy, quoted FOB wheat down $2 at $221 a tonne and Barley $1 down to $232 a tonne.

By Aug. 30 Russia had exported 9.8 million tonnes of grain since the start of the 2018/19 season on July 1. That was up 39 percent from the same period the previous year and included 8.2 million tonnes of wheat.

Russia is expected to harvest 105 million tonnes of grain, leaving 30 million tonnes available for export in the 2018/19 marketing season that started on July 1, its deputy prime minister in charge of agriculture said on Monday.

SovEcon said it downgraded its forecast for Russia's 2018 grain crop to 108.3 million tonnes from a previously expected 109.6 million tonnes because of a revised estimate for the maize (corn) crop.

The latter is expected to fall to its lowest level since 2012 at 10.6 million tonnes. SovEcon's estimate for the 2018 wheat crop was raised by 200,000 tonnes to 69 million tonnes.

Domestic prices for third-class wheat were up 150 roubles at  10,900 roubles ($155) a tonne at the end of last week in the European part of Russia on an ex-works basis, SovEcon said. Ex-works supply does not include delivery costs.

Prices for the new crop of sunflower seed are being set at about 19,500-20,000 roubles a tonne, SovEcon said. Domestic prices for sunflower oil were flat at 47,175 roubles a tonne, while export prices rose $5 to $690 a tonne.

IKAR's white sugar price index for southern Russia was at $402.9 a tonne as of Sept. 7, up $21 from a week earlier. ($1 = 70.2575 roubles)