The European Union this week granted export licences for 502,000 tonnes of soft wheat, taking the total since the beginning of the 2011/12 (July-June) season to 5.54 million tonnes, official data showed on Thursday. This was the second consecutive award of more than 500,000 tonnes of weekly wheat export licences.
Still, EU wheat exports remained well below the 8.8 million tonnes of licences cleared by the same stage in 2010/11, the data showed. EU wheat exports have seen renewed competition from Russia this season and are now facing a pick-up in Ukrainian shipments after the country scrapped export duties on wheat and maize.
France claimed the largest share of this week's EU soft wheat export licences with 314,325 tonnes requested, ahead of Germany with 91,000 tonnes, the Netherlands with 20,000 and Romania with 15,000. The EU this week also granted licences to export 141,000 tonnes of maize, bringing the total this season to 1.24 million tonnes compared with 405,000 tonnes at the same stage last season, the data showed.
Of this total, nearly 66,000 tonnes were requested in Romania, 44,450 tonnes in Bulgaria and 22,600 tonnes in Germany. Romania now accounts for 38 percent of total maize export licences this season. The EU is usually a small exporter of maize but high prices in the United States, the world's top maize producer and exporter, and a big EU harvest this year have generated a wave of export demand in recent weeks.