European wheat prices fall on bearish export outlook

European wheat prices fell on Wednesday, weakened by a fall in Chicago as a larger-than-expected crop in Canada and hefty supplies from the Black Sea region dimmed the outlook for exports. "The euro remains stubbornly strong and the outlook for new export sales is not very rosy," one European trader said.
"The Black Sea region seems to be experiencing a relatively mild start to the winter and exports from Russia and elsewhere are continuing to flow out at high volumes, seemingly without disruption from the weather." March milling wheat on Paris-based Euronext, was down 0.3 percent by 1725 GMT at 161.00 euros a tonne.
Russia still expects to export 45 million tonnes of grain in the 2017/18 marketing year which started on July 1, Russian Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Statistics Canada estimated the country's all-wheat harvest at 30 million tonnes, down 5.5 percent year over the year. But the estimate exceeded Statscan's previous estimate by 10.5 percent and easily surpassed the average trade expectation of 28 million tonnes.
In Germany, cash market premiums in Hamburg were little changed with main wheat demand coming from animal feed makers rather than exports. Standard bread wheat with 12 percent protein content for January delivery in Hamburg was offered for sale unchanged at 4 euros over Paris March.
"The animal feed industry is once again offering higher prices than German flour mills, the main problem is high trucking prices in Germany which in reality restrict the volumes which can be moved profitably over long distances to the feed markets," one trader said. Feed wheat prices on Germany's South Oldenburg market were once more above milling wheat, with December delivery offered at around 175 euros a tonne, with buyers around 174 euros.