May UK wheat futures weakened this week and fell through to £138 on Friday, the lowest price since December 2016. Russia seems to have realised that it has little competition in the international wheat export market this year, so even with prices rising their dominance has not been affected. The remains of the Clotilda - the last known ship to carry enslaved Africans into the US may have been found
There has been very little volatility for quite some time and the trade is getting bored. Michael Gove, the Defra Secretary, attended both of the Oxford conferences this week, the Oxford Farming Conference and the rival Oxford Real Farming Conference. Archaeologists in Alaska have found an 11,500 year-old skeleton
Defra and the trade are now in agreement that UK wheat supply and demand are in relative balance assuming both exports and imports also remain in balance. At the Jack Daniels distillery at Lynchburg, Tennessee they have a unique way of celebrating Christmas – they build the Jack Daniels Christmas Barrel Tree. Merry Christmas!
All wheat markets are weak, reflecting ample global stocks and pressured by forecasts of larger Canadian and Australian harvests. Brazil and Argentina are also currently busy harvesting, so the world is not short of wheat. Back in the 18th century, a paper was needed in order to prove that cocks are incapable of laying eggs...
The lack of price action recently has been so dull, that the grain trade are acting like door-to-door salesmen in their efforts to try to create a market. They say anything is possible in the USA... A microwaved egg has been the subject of an American lawsuit where a customer bit into an egg resulting in burns and hearing loss due to the massive ‘pop’.
Last Friday, UK May wheat futures closed down £0.60 at £145.65, the same day that Vivergo announced that they were to bring forward and extend their `annual maintenance’ due to low biofuel prices and low profit margins. They also took a swipe at ‘government inaction’ regarding its failure to legislate for E10 (10% bioethanol and 90% petrol).