Monday Market Briefing - 4th September 2023

The four-day week saw prices give up most of the previous week’s small gains, we drift onwards in very light trading. Sochi is the venue on Monday for a meeting between Putin and Erdogan to discuss the Black Sea Grain deal. It doesn’t appear that any of Russia’s recent demands are on the table, and the sense is Putin will want to drag this out for a bit longer yet, but you never know. The US is closed anyway on Monday for Labor Day, ( they can celebrate it they just can’t spell it ) so we could see some bumpy trading in their absence if anything meaningful does come out of the session. Grain cargoes continue to sail from both Russian and Ukrainian ports during this period albeit in reduced numbers. 

We await the final outcome of the northern European harvest which will influence our early season prospects a great deal. Scandinavia is a key competitor for us into many export markets, the crop is not quite as poor as some feared but any reduced availability this season will likely improve UK trade in a number of areas. 

 At home, it did feel like there was a lack of farm selling to meet the spot demand that is out there. To put it mildly the UK is getting off to a slow start in export terms this season and this will take some recovering from later on. Where ships are coming in to load, they are taking a bit of filling. Plenty of opportunities then for anyone wanting to make a bit of space in the barn and with quality premiums at very high levels its worth a look.  

Have a good week.