MOSCOW: Russian wheat prices rebounded slightly last week from a week earlier, when they fell on the extension of the Black Sea grain supply deal, analysts said on Monday.
Prices for Russian wheat with 12.5% protein content and for supply from Black Sea ports in December were at $317 a tonne free on board (FOB) on Friday evening, up $3 from a week earlier, the IKAR agriculture consultancy said in a note.
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Russia’s grain exports fell to 780,000 tonnes last week from 1.0 million tonnes the previous week, another consultancy Sovecon said, citing port data. Wheat prices for immediate delivery were stable at $315-319 per tonne, it added.
Russia’s agriculture ministry has already bought 1.94 million tonnes of grain from the domestic market for the state stockpile in the current July-June season, Sovecon added. The ministry plans to buy up to 3 million tonnes this season.
Farmers have planted winter grains on 17.7 million hectares, compared with 18.4 million hectares around the same date a year earlier, the consultancy said.
Weather conditions remain friendly for winter wheat in the Volga and central regions of Russia, Sovecon said, adding that Russia’s southern regions of Krasnodar and Stavropol are a bit dry.