Wheat demand from key Arab North African countries is slowing, but overall demand funadamentals are unchanged, Germany's largest grain trading house Toepfer International said on Wednesday. The continuing upheaval in Libya has been a weakening factor for European Union wheat prices since early March, Toepfer said. Observers are concerned that unrest will disrupt grain imports.
"Basically the demand for old-crop wheat from North Africa has slowed, but it has not come to a stop," Toepfer said. Despite the fall, it saw no fundamental change to demand in the region in the longer term. EU corn (maize) prices have also fallen recently following drops in wheat and also pressured by low-price barley being sold from European Union intervention stocks, it said in a report. This means EU corn prices have increased international competitiveness. "We do not expect increasing EU (corn) imports from North and South America," it said.
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