Flour millers in Asia are switching to Australian wheat as a decline in the Pacific nation's grain prices has made cargoes more competitive, a setback for Black Sea suppliers who had been gaining market share in the region. In the past 10 days, mills in Asia have signed deals to import up to 400,000 tonnes of new-crop Australian wheat for shipment between December and January, three trade sources said.
"Buyers have been very active in the last one week to 10 days," said a grains trading manager at an international trading company in Singapore. "They are mainly taking milling wheat from Australia, but some buyers have also taken feed wheat of Australian origin." Global wheat prices slid to a 10-year low of $3.86-3/4 a bushel last week on expectations of near-record production in key exporting regions of the world.
Millers have bought Australian wheat with 10.5 percent protein content at $205-$210 a tonne, including cost and freight. This compared with the price of $195 and $200 a tonne being offered for Black Sea wheat. "Mills in Asia prefer Australian wheat over other origins, so they are ready to pay a premium of about $15 per tonne," said a second trading source in Singapore. "Earlier mills were taking Black Sea cargoes as the premium was much higher."
Shipments of Australian wheat are regarded as cleaner, with less moisture and a better protein content. Bangladesh has been one of the most active destinations in Asia for Black Sea wheat, taking close to one million tonnes for arrival between August and December. Indonesia has taken about 400,000 tonnes for delivery during the same period. Buyers are now shifting some of that demand to Australia.
In one of the latest deals for Australian wheat, Indonesia bought 100,000 tonnes for December-January shipment at about $210 a tonne. The Philippines took 30,000 tonnes of milling wheat and 60,000 tonnes of feed quality of Australian origin. "Buyers in the Philippines taking Australian feed wheat is key as feed wheat business is usually dominated by the Black Sea suppliers," one Australia-based analyst said.
The loss of business in Asia is a double whammy for the Black Sea region's wheat suppliers following a decline in shipments to Egypt, the world's biggest wheat buyer, after it implemented zero tolerance for ergot fungus in foreign shipments. Egyptian inspectors have rejected a 63,000 tonne shipment of Romanian origin-wheat in a Romanian port after checks for ergot fungus. Australian farmers will start in October the harvest of a near-record crop of close to 28 million tonnes following ideal growing conditions this year.
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