The European Union is holding the first round of its free-market and intervention grain export tenders on Thursday, which will give the market hints on its export policy for the 2006/2007 season.
Traders and analysts said the Commission will likely sell as much intervention grain as it can but it may grant refunds on free-market wheat exports to kick off the season, provided the levels of refund bid are not overly greedy.
The EU has opened export tenders for two million tonnes of free-market soft wheat and one million tonnes of barley. It also opened tenders to export 1.89 million tonnes of grain held in its intervention stores, including 980,000 tonnes of wheat.
"There is a chance that with the right bids at the right quantity the Commission might want to get the free-market season rolling," Geneva-based Agrinews analyst James Dunsterville said.
The last time the EU granted refunds to export free-market wheat last season was early June when it accepted bids for 3,000 tonnes with a maximum refund of 6.00 euros a tonne.
Doubts remained on how the EU intends to balance free-market sales against those from its bloated intervention stocks.
Analysts stressed the two tenders did not overlap at this stage because intervention export tenders mainly concern grain stored in eastern Europe while free-market tenders generally favour exports from France and Germany.
The EU opened intervention export tenders for 500,000 tonnes of Hungarian wheat and 400,000 from Poland as well as 150,000 tonnes of barley from the Czech Republic, 100,000 from Poland and 200,000 tonnes from Finland.
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