MOSCOW: Russian wheat export prices fell last week after two weeks of growth due to lower prices in Chicago and Paris, analysts said on Tuesday.

Russian wheat with 12.5% protein loading from Black Sea ports for supply in March was at $285 a tonne free on board (FOB) at the end of last week, down $2 from the previous week, agriculture consultancy IKAR said.

Refinitiv said wheat prices fell by $3.5 to $283.5 per tonne. Sovecon pegged barley at $252 per tonne, up $1.

Russia doubled its wheat export tax to 50 euros ($59.5) ($60) per tonne starting from March 1. Sovecon expects Russia’s wheat exports to slow to 2.0-2.5 million tonnes in March due to the higher tax.

A mild Russian winter has dramatically improved the condition of winter grain sowings, which were previously hit by a dry autumn, weather forecaster Hydrometcentre said last week, adding that 7-9% of sown winter grains were currently in a bad condition.

This estimate could be too optimistic and probably does not reflect ice-crust issues farmers have been experiencing in recent weeks, Sovecon said.

“Having said all that, we feel that our winter-kill estimate of around 16% starts to look too pessimistic. We are likely to revise it down by several percentage points,” it added.—Reuters