EU Grains Mixed, Rapeseed Breaks 11 Session Winning Streak

20/10/16 -- EU grains closed mixed, but mostly a touch easier. Rapeseed broke it's 11 session winning streak to close slightly lower.

At the close Nov 16 London wheat was down GBP0.20/tonne at GBP133.80/tonne, Dec 16 Paris wheat was EUR0.25/tonne lower at EUR162.50onne, Nov 16 Paris corn was unchanged at EUR159.25/tonne, Nov 16 Paris rapeseed was EUR1.00/tonne easier at EUR392.75/tonne.

French analysts Strategie Grains lowered their forecast for the EU-28 soft wheat crop, coming up with a figure of 135.8 MMT, down 600,000 MT on a month ago and 10% below last year. This included downwards assessments for output in France, Great Britain, Austria, Estonia, Poland and Denmark.

They also reduced their ideas on exports for 2016/17 by 300,000 MT to 23.4 MMT, a 28% decline year-on-year.

Barley production was lowered 200,000 MT from a month ago to 59.7 MMT, but corn output was raised by 500,000 MT to 59.8 MMT.

In their first forecast for plantings for the 2017 harvest they said that they expected little change to winter wheat or barley sowings.

India continues to purchase foreign wheat after a disappointing quality harvest this year, and miller dissatisfaction with the standard of government owned wheat that is in storage. Indian buyers were reported to have booked 100,000 MT of Australian wheat today. Ukraine has been the other main beneficiary of this new pick up in demand.

The USDA's FAS in Moscow raised their forecast for this year's Russian harvest to a clean weight 114.5 TMT - a post Soviet era record. They have wheat output at 72 MMT, barley production at 17.7 MMT and a corn crop of 13.0 MMT.

Total grain exports were increased by 1 MMT to 38 MMT, including 29 MMT of wheat and 4 MMT of barley.

The Russian government said that the country has harvested 117 MMT of grains in bunker weight, including 75.7 MMT of wheat. The wheat harvest is said to be 98% complete.

Russian plantings for the 2017 harvest are said to now be complete on 16.0 million ha, or 92.1% of the government target.