Monday Market Briefing - 17th January 2022

Last week’s USDA report offered no new excitement for the bulls, and with Southern Hemisphere crops now arriving on the market, International tenders are more unpredictable. Hence, we saw renewed pressure late in the week in all markets. That said the new crop noticeably held its ground and made it to Friday unchanged, which possibly reflects the new global reality of repeating year on year tight supplies. With May LIFFE now less than £20 over the new crop it might struggle to get any lower for a while, and a sideways week is the prediction.

With the 2021 world harvest nearing completion we can’t expect any more shock, so the potential for old crop rallies depends partly on the new crop prospects but also any local tightness in supply that emerges as we go into the spring. The lack of follow-on selling in malting barley is noticeable as farms don’t seem to have the extra clear up lots after pre-Christmas sales were collected. Will the same apply for milling wheat? Or feed grains?  It’s still a long way to harvest and there are an interesting few months ahead.

Have a good week.