Tuesday Market Briefing - 30th May 2023

Markets tracked sideways to slightly higher last week despite a lack of real bullish news to support them, maybe we have found a solid base at £190 Nov LIFFE for the time being. Certainly there was bearish news aplenty for anyone looking as the Chinese wheat harvest progresses and early reports suggest a much improved yield after last years poor crop. With that harvest still in its early stages at about 10% complete, wheat is temporarily displacing corn in the feed ration there, which may be what’s behind the postponement/cancellation of up to 800,000mt of nearby corn shipments from Brazil and US.

It’s obviously too early to say if China is a reliable indicator for the wider Northern Hemisphere Crop, but if it does prove to be, we will have no worries on wheat supply this year. The fact the market appeared to shrug off this news suggests for the time being prices are cheap enough and we will continue with a stable price environment. Nevertheless we are some way from having a convincingly bullish picture here.

Our home Port of Shoreham had a record month of May with 20,000mt of grain shipped out, not bad for one of the supposedly quieter periods of the Year. The UK is making a decent stab at shifting the 22 Crop ahead of harvest but some carry out is still inevitable. We still have openings for most grades of milling wheats domestically – the consistently high premiums available for the best samples has been one of the highlights of the season and this looks set to continue into new crop. Call your farm trader or the Office if you want to take advantage of these movement slots.

Have a good week.