Grain Highlights 07.08.2023

IKAR has increased its forecast for the grain production in Russia in 2023/24 by 2.5 million tons, reaching 137 million tons, including 88 million tons of wheat (compared to 86.5 million tons).

SovEcon has raised its forecast for wheat exports from Russia in 2023/24 to a new record level of 48.1 million tons (compared to the previous estimate of 47.2 million tons). The total grain export is expected to reach 59.1 million tons (compared to 58.9 million tons).

IKAR has increased its forecast for the grain production in Russia in 2023/24 by 2.5 million tons, reaching 137 million tons, including 88 million tons of wheat (compared to 86.5 million tons). The grain exports are projected to reach 61 million tons (compared to 58.5 million tons), including 47.5 million tons of wheat (compared to 46 million tons).

The harvesting campaign of winter crops in the Stavropol region of Russia has been completed, with 8.2 million tons of grain collected (compared to 8.5 million tons in 2022).

During the period from 31st July to 6th August 2023, the Russian port of Novorossiysk exported 560,000 tons of grain (compared to 516,000 tons in the previous week), including 507,000 tons of wheat and 53,000 tons of barley. The main clients for wheat were Bangladesh with 102,000 tons and Algeria with 94,000 tons.

France's Ministry of Agriculture has increased its forecast for the 2023/24 soft wheat production in the country to 35.59 million tons (compared to the previous estimate of 35 million tons, representing a 5.6% increase from 2022/23). The barley production is expected to be 12.16 million tons (compared to 11.9 million tons, a 6.5% increase), corn production is projected at 10.89 million tons (compared to 10.65 million tons in 2022/23), rapeseed production is estimated at 4.34 million tons (compared to 4.64 million tons, a decrease of 4%), and sunseed production at 1.98 million tons (an 11% increase from 2022/23), which is the highest level in the last 100 years.

According to COAG's estimate, Spain's wheat production in 2023 will only reach 5 million tons (compared to 15 million tons in 2022) due to prolonged drought. The country needs 36.1 million tons of grain annually, which is likely to increase imports, possibly from Argentina and Brazil, due to the closed corridors in Ukraine.

Oil World data shows that 1.7 million tons of soymeal were exported from Argentina in July (compared to 2.5 million tons in July 2022). The total exports for the period from July to September reached 4.6 million tons (compared to 6.1 million tons). The entire 2022/23 soymeal exports are expected to be the lowest in the last 19 years, totaling 21 million tons (a 5.7% decrease from 2021/22).

In July, Argentine farmers sold a record 6.4 million tons of corn (an increase of 0.6% compared to July 2022). During the "corn dollar" period, 4.4 million tons of grain were sold.

Egypt has announced a new tender for the purchase of wheat, scheduled for tomorrow, 08.08.2023. In the previous tender held last week, 360,000 tons of Russian and Romanian wheat were purchased.

According to the Malaysian Palm Oil Board's forecast, the production of crude palm oil in Malaysia will reach 19 million tons in 2023 (compared to 18.5 million tons in 2022). The export is expected to be 16 million tons (compared to 15.7 million tons).