Grains prices in Chicago went down on Monday.

The EUR/USD index went up to 1.0652. Crude oil went down to 52.73 USD/barrel.

Most crude oil producer countries, including Iran, support the extension of production reduction agreement. The statement was made by Iran’s Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh.

Grains markets re-opened after the holiday period, but trade was not very active. The rainfall during the holidays had some effect on the situation.

Some more interesting news came from the Northern African countries, particularly Morocco. The current season grain yield in Morocco may reach 10.2 mln tons, which will be three times more than the previous year, the country’s Ministry of Agriculture predicted. Last year’s drought reduced the yield to 3.35 mln tons including 2.7 mln tons of wheat. This year’s soft wheat yield will be 4.94 mln tons, Durum yield will be 2.33 mln tons and barley yield will be 2.89 mln tons. Over the current season, the country has been a big grain importer from the USA, the EU and South America, but this is unlike to be repeated in the new season.

Between the start of the season and 12.04.2017, 29.284 mln tons of grain were exported from Russia including 22.631 mln tons of wheat, 2.364 mln tons of barley and 4.084 mln tons of corn. Compared with the previous year, export volume has dropped by 0.5% - 29.428 mln tons. There has been an increase of 5.6% for the wheat and +8% for the corn, but barley has dropped by 40.3% compared with the previous year.

According to information from APK - Inform, between April 7 and April 13, 533,400 tons of grain were exported from Russian sea ports versus 568,700 tons a week earlier. Export consisted of 467,400 tons of wheat, 37,000 tons of corn and 29,000 tons of barley. Egypt with 254,800 tons, Lebanon with 52,000 tons and Turkey with 44,700 tons were the biggest buyers.

The Russians keep up with their usual export tempo. Despite the newly-introduced import taxes, deliveries to Turkey are still on at lower volumes.

Yesterday was full of news. The US news is presented in the report below.

Corn price – Corn futures in Chicago went down by 4.25 – 4.75 cents/bushel yesterday. 6% of the corn areas in the USA have been sowed versus 12% last year and an average of 9% for the past five years. Weekly American corn export deals measured 1,328,134 tons, which was +9.52% more than the previous week and +20.65% more than the previous year. The results are 64.07% bigger than last year.

Soybean price – Soybeans in Chicago went down by 1 cent/bushel yesterday. Weekly American soybean export deals measured 430,879 tons (-51.58% and +60.76%). The results since the start of the season have been 5.97 mln tons more than last year. 4.16 mln tons of soybeans were processed in the USA in March, which was lower than the forecasts and 2.37% less than last year.

Wheat price – Wheat futures in Chicago went down by 5.5 – 8.75 cents/bushel yesterday. 4% of winter wheat crops in the USA are in good and excellent condition, which is 1% more than last week. 13% of the planned spring wheat areas in the USA have been sowed versus 25% last year and an average of 21% in the past five years. American wheat export deals are slightly higher than last week’s level – 671,868 tons, but 22.6% more than the previous year. Since the start of the season, export has been 13.7% bigger than last year.