Russian new crop wheat prices down

Russian new crop wheat prices fell $5 per tonne last week, with supplies from Ukraine unaffected by its crisis and on expectations the new harvest will be helped by good weather, the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) said. Russian wheat prices had been supported by concerns over supplies from Ukraine, its peer grains exporter via the Black Sea, during recent months.
However, customers continued to buy wheat from Ukraine despite the turmoil, which Russia may be trying to defuse by ordering military forces that took part in drills along the border to return to base. Egypt, one of the world's largest importers of wheat, bought 60,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat for shipment from June 20-30, it said on Friday. "It seems that the crop in (Russia's) south will be not bad, the harvesting nears and supplies from (Ukraine's) Odessa port remained unaffected," said Dmitry Rylko, the head of IKAR.
Russian future prices for the new wheat crop with 12.5 percent protein content were quoted at $265 per tonne at the end of last week, down from $270 per tonne a week earlier on a free-on-board (FOB) basis in the Black Sea, IKAR said. SovEcon agricultural analysts pegged new crop wheat prices at between $268 and $275 a tonne. As to the old crop, prices have fallen to $286 per tonne from $291 per tonne in the Black Sea and remained unchanged in the Azov Sea at $266 per tonne, IKAR added.
Since the start of the 2013/14 marketing season on July 1, Russia exported 24.2 million tonnes of grain, including 17.3 million tonnes of wheat as of mid-May, a Moscow-based agricultural consultancy said. Russian market participants are getting ready to start trading early grains in a month, earlier than usual, thanks to the warm weather, SovEcon said. According to IKAR, wheat harvesting is expected to start around June 25 compared to the usual date of around July 5.
SovEcon estimated that Russian sunflower seed prices declined by 25 roubles to 13,250 roubles ($380) a tonne at the end of last week. IKAR pegged it at 13,700 roubles a tonne. Export prices for sunflower oil were flat, at $870-$880 a tonne on a FOB basis in the Black Sea, according to SovEcon. IKAR's crude sunoil price index was quoted at $844 per tonne, up $6. The white sugar price index in Russia's south was up 400 roubles at 28,600 roubles ($820) per tonne last week, IKAR added.
Farmers had sown 18.2 million hectares as of May 16, or 57 percent of the whole planned area for spring grains, which was 4.0 million hectares more than on the same day a year ago, according to data from the Agriculture Ministry. Spring wheat was sown on 5.2 million hectares, or 39 percent of the whole planned area, and 1.9 million hectares more than a year ago.