Most Russian grain prices rose last week due to exporter demand and purchases by millers and distillers ahead of the New Year holidays, traders said.
The government has purchased 1.331 million tonnes of third class wheat, 186,600 tonnes of fourth class wheat and 41,300 tonnes of milling wheat so far at intervention tenders spending 4.7 billion roubles
Exporter demand has pushed grains prices up. Milling grain prices were supported by domestic demand from flour mills, which try to replenish their stocks. Distilleries have increased feed grain purchases ahead of the holidays.
Both third and fourth class wheat prices kept rising, though exporters have started winding up their activity. The market remains bullish.
Milling rye prices, which had been rather stable, have risen slightly in the Volga region, probably due to government purchases.
Feed wheat prices rose notably, while average offer prices for feed barley rose only slightly.
Sunseed market was largely unchanged. An insignificant rise of offer prices was registered at some crushers in North Caucasus. But the market participants expect a downward trend due to large supply.
An increase by Turkey of import tariffs on sunseed and crude sunoil from countries outside of the World Trade Organisation from December 6 was an unpleasant surprise for Russia and Ukraine, which are not WTO members.
Turkey is a traditional buyer of Russian sunseed and sunoil, and therefore higher tariffs may cut Russian exports and push domestic prices down.