German farmers have offered about 2,012,000 tonnes of grain for European Union intervention subsidies, up some 129,000 tonnes in the past two weeks, an official at state buying agency BLE said on Monday. The total included about 1,232,000 tonnes of barley, about 771,000 tonnes of wheat and 7,960 tonnes of maize.
The agency said it had received notice that about 43,000 tonnes of the offers would be cancelled. That happens when farmers believe they can get higher commercial prices than the current intervention price.
On Thursday the EU Commission announced it would resume subsidies for exports of wheat to countries outside the EU. Traders believe this could slow the flow of grain into intervention and lead to more cancellations if exports are subsidised aggressively.
In the entire previous EU intervention purchasing season German farmers sold only 155,000 tonnes of grain into intervention as commercial prices were higher than subsidies.