Grain Highlights 18.06.2023

Agritel estimates the new wheat production in Romania at 8.8 million tons (-1.6 compared to the previous estimate and -0.4 compared to 2022/23).

- According to a government forecast, grain exports from Russia will reach 60 million tons in 2023/24.

- From the beginning of the season to 16.06.2023, 47.49 million tons of grain were exported from Ukraine (4.794 a year earlier), including 2.153 million tons in June (695,000). 16.314 million tons of wheat (816,000), 2.667 million tons of barley (20,000) and 28.185 million tons of corn (1.314) were exported.

- According to operational data, as of June 15, 2023, 5,619 million hectares (5,457 in the forecast) were sown with cereals in Ukraine, including spring wheat areas of 271,000 hectares (95% of the plan), spring barley areas of 810,000 hectares (78%) and corn areas 4.015 million hectares (111%). 5.284 million hectares (94%) were sown with sunseed, and 1,774 million hectares (96%) with soybeans.

- FranceAgriMer is concerned that the prolonged drought in France will affect the condition of corn and sunseed. Rainfall is expected in the coming days, which will be good in some places.

- On Thursday, Chicago commodity funds were net buyers of 17,500 contracts of corn, 20,000 contracts of soybeans and 12,500 contracts of wheat.

- At the end of the week, palm oil in Malaysia rose after data on lower production and drought in the US Corn Belt. Plantations in the state of Sabah, the largest producer, are experiencing moisture shortages due to early signs of El Niño. During the period June 1-15, palm oil exports from Malaysia decreased by 16.6% compared to May.

- According to data from GAPKI, the export of palm oil from Malaysia reached 2.1 million tons in April, which is 19% less than in March. During the month, production was 4.5 million tons (-5% and +8% compared to April 2022).

- Iraq received the first batch of Australian wheat purchased in February. In total, the deal is for 400,000 tons of grain with delivery by September.