Monday Market Briefing - 20th April

Shipping Activity: MV Sea Ruby – 2,200 MT milling wheat, Shoreham

Markets start firmer today after last week’s correction off the highs. New crop wheat has now returned to the level that was a strong base-line for the market throughout Jan and Feb. We should see this week if the market wants to test that support in the absence of fresh news to encourage the bulls.

Encouragingly, world trade continues to function fairly normally. Egypt had to cancel one wheat tender when sharp-eyed traders spotted a new clause in the document requiring shippers to replace cargoes from other origins at own cost if any virus-related delay in shipment occurred. Egypt bought again on Thursday in a fresh tender resulting in 400,000 MT of Russian and French wheat trading on the week. Taiwan are in to buy US wheat this week, so standard supply lines continue to be executed. We have to balance this with the realities at Mills and Maltings where there are some delays emerging receiving spot goods, including deferring some contracts to later positions when demand returns to normal.

A good proportion of the UK crops had a solid chunk of rain, including the whole of the south UK where the emerging spring barley crop will have benefited. We can probably dismiss weather as a crop issue for the South now and hopefully look forward to a high quality crop to market. In contrast, the condition of French crops has reportedly deteriorated over the week with the wheat crop having the lowest condition rating in years. There is some doubt whether the rain fell in the south of Russia where it was needed, so expect to hear more about that in the coming days. 

Have a good week and stay safe. 

Bartholomews Grain Marketing Team