Russian wheat export prices hit highest level in 11 months

Export prices of Russian wheat hit their highest level since late February 2019 last week due to a jump in global benchmarks and strong domestic prices, analysts said on Monday. Russian wheat with 12.5% protein content, loaded from Black Sea ports and intended for delivery in February, rose by $5 to $231 per tonne on a free-on-board (FOB) basis at the end of last week, SovEcon said. Barley rose by $1 to $187 per tonne.

IKAR, another agricultural consultancy in Moscow, pegged wheat at $232 per tonne, up $7. Russia is the world's largest wheat exporter. It exported 25.3 million tonnes of grain, including 21.8 million tonnes of wheat, between the start of the 2019/20 season on July 1 and Jan. 23, SovEcon said, citing customs data. Total grain exports were down 17% from a year earlier.

SovEcon said it had lowered its 2019/2020 grain export forecast by 1.3 million tonnes from its December estimate to 41.5 million tonnes. Its forecast for wheat was reduced by 900,000 tonnes to 32.2 million tonnes. Russia's winter weather remains abnormally warm and there is no snow in the majority of the central and southern regions. Lower temperatures are expected to arrive to the European part of the country within two weeks, but they will remain in the crop-safe zone, SovEcon said.