Russian wheat prices up on stronger rouble

Russian wheat prices rose slightly last week due to a stronger rouble after long New Year holidays in Russia, analysts said on Monday. Black Sea prices for Russian wheat with 12.5 percent protein content for January supply were $183 per tonne on a free-on-board (FOB) basis at the end of last week, up $1 from late December, Russian agricultural consultancy IKAR said.
SovEcon, another Moscow-based consultancy, quoted FOB wheat at $182 a tonne, up $0.5 since late 2016. Russia had official New Year holidays between Jan. 1-8.
The Russian rouble has been rising against the dollar in 2017, partially due to investors who expect Western sanctions against Moscow to be eased in the foreseeable future - making Russian exports more expensive in dollar-denominated markets.
Russia exported 20.8 million tonnes of grain between July 1 and Jan. 11, unchanged from a year ago, including 16.3 million tonnes of wheat, the agriculture ministry said.
IKAR sees January grain exports at between 1.8 million and 2.0 million tonnes, including 1.4-1.5 million tonnes of wheat.
Egypt's state grain buyer GASC bought 175,000 tonnes of Russian wheat for shipment in February in a tender on Saturday.
As to prospects for the 2017 crop, frosts, which were seen in part of Russia in early January, did not affect winter grain sowings, analysts said.
The country harvested a record crop of 119.1 million tonnes of grains after drying and cleaning in 2016, according to preliminary data from the state statistics service Rosstat.
The wheat crop reached a record level of 73.3 million tonnes, with 18 million tonnes of barley and 13.8 million tonnes of maize (corn). The final grain crop data will be probably higher due to late maize harvesting, SovEcon said.
Domestic prices for third-class wheat, excluding delivery costs, remained at 10,650 roubles ($179) a tonne in the European part of Russia, according to SovEcon.
Sunflower seed prices fell 225 roubles to 20,600 roubles a tonne, SovEcon said. Domestic sunflower oil prices fell 650 roubles to 47,275 roubles, while export oil prices were down $20 at $760 a tonne.