Russian wheat up slightly, exports accelerate

7/18/2022

MOSCOW, July 18 (Reuters) - Russian wheat export prices rose slightly last week, helped by a stronger rouble, the IKAR agriculture consultancy said on Monday, adding that exports quickened with arrival of the new crop. The United States last week issued clarification reassuring banks, shippers and insurance companies that transactions with Russian food and fertiliser exports would not breach Washington's sanctions on Moscow. Traders consider this clarification "with very careful optimism", IKAR said in a note. It currently expects the country to export more than 2 million tonnes of wheat this month. Russian prices for wheat with 12.5% protein content and for supply from Black Sea ports rose by $2 to $360 a tonne free on board (FOB) at the end of last week, IKAR said. Russia exported 500,000 tonnes of grain last week, compared with 340,000 tonnes the previous week, said fellow consultancy Sovecon, citing port data. Wheat prices for imminent supply were at $355-360 a tonne, it added. Other Russian data provided by Sovecon and IKAR: Product: Price at the end Change from week of last week: earlier - Domestic 3rd class 13,275 rbls/t -300 rbls wheat, European part ($234.13) of Russia, excludes delivery (Sovecon) - Sunflower seeds 26,250 rbls/t +300 rbls (Sovecon) - Domestic sunflower 74,000 rbls/t unchanged oil (Sovecon) - Domestic soybeans 34,925 rbls/t -200 rbls (Sovecon) - Export sunflower $1,430/t -$110 oil (Sovecon) - Export sunflower $1,310/t -$60 oil (IKAR) - White sugar, $1,089.9/t +$76.3 Russia's south (IKAR) The harvesting data provided by Sovecon as of July 14*: All grains: Wheat Barley Crop, mln tonnes 19.9 15.5 3.5 Crop, as of same 14.9 10.6 2.7 date in 2021 Yield, 4.1 4.2 4.6 tonnes/hectare Yield, as of same 3.4 3.4 3.9 date in 2021 Harvested area, 4.9 3.7 0.8 mln hectares Harvested area, as 4.3 3.1 0.7 of same date in 2021 * Russia's agriculture ministry has yet to publish harvesting data for the current season. ($1 = 56.7000 roubles) (Reporting by Reuters Editing by David Goodman)