Russian wheat declines for fifth week

MOSCOW, Sept 04 (Business Recorder): Export prices for Russian wheat fell last week for the fifth consecutive week as competition with Ukraine and other producers intensified, analysts said on Wednesday.

Russian wheat exports have been slow so far this season, to the benefit of Ukraine which has seen a surge in its grain shipments, traders said last week.

Black Sea prices for wheat with 12.5 per cent protein content fell $1 to $189 a tonne on a free on board (FOB) basis by the end of last week, Russian agricultural consultancy IKAR said.

SovEcon, another Moscow consultancy, pegged wheat at $189 a tonne, down $2 "as Russia's suppliers need to compete with other origins." Barley dropped $4 to $177 a tonne.

Russia has exported 8.7 million tonnes of grain since the start of the 2019/20 season, 7 per cent less than in the same period of the previous year, SovEcon said. That figure included 7.3 million tonnes of wheat.

Russian farmers have already sown winter grains for next year's crop on 15.2 per cent of the planned area or on 2.7 million hectares.