Russian grain prices were declining slowly last week ahead of the new harvest, while a rise on the sunseed and sunoil market had slowed down, traders said.
The progress of the sowing campaign has accelerated with the area sown by large and medium farms rising by 0.4 million hectares from a year-ago levels to 23 million hectares by May 30.
The area sown with sunflowers was 3.4 million hectares, close to last year's indicators, but the speed of the sowing was substantially higher.
The activity on the grains markets kept declining with both demand and supply remaining low, as many market operators were winding down their trade and sending staff on holidays. Most cereals lost between 25 and 50 roubles per tonne last week.
Major market players polled by SovEcon saw starting prices for new harvest grain at around 3,000 roubles per tonne for third grade wheat (Ex-works North Caucasus), 2,700 roubles for fourth grade wheat, 2,400 roubles for feed wheat and 2,300 roubles for feed barley. Farmgate prices are expected to be 200-300 roubles lower.
A rise on the sunseed market has largely stopped last week. Prices were stable in North Caucasus, while in the Volga region supply rose pushing prices down.
Many market players believe that the upward trend registered on the markets in the last few months has come to an end. Holders of large sunseed stocks which had been expecting a rise to levels close to 7,000 roubles per tonne (Ex-works North Caucasus) started selling seeds at current prices.
Average sunoil prices rose slightly last week. But top offer prices declared by crushers remained in the range of 17,000-17,500 roubles per tonne. Some crushers reported difficulties in finding buyers.
Comments
Comments are closed.