Wheat prices in Ukraine are falling in line with world quotations

Last week, purchase prices for fodder wheat in Ukraine decreased by $2-4/t to $150-155/t with delivery to the Black Sea ports, but hryvnia prices remained at the level of UAH 6,400-6,500/t against the background of limited supply from producers.

Processors reduced prices for 3-class wheat by 200-300 UAH/t to 6,300-6,500 UAH/t with delivery to the mill, while prices for high-quality food wheat with 12.5% protein remained at 7,000-7,300 UAH/t.

The decrease in world quotations has had the biggest impact on the prices of Ukrainian food wheat, which has difficulty competing with higher-quality Russian and European grain. Export demand prices fell by $5-7/t to $170-175/t or UAH 6,950-7,400/t with delivery to ports.

Against the background of significant supply and low demand, global quotations fell by 0.5-0.7% for the week, and by 1.2-1.8% yesterday.

March wheat futures fell yesterday:

• by 1.6% to $216.9/t – for soft winter SRW wheat in Chicago (-0.7% for the week),
• by 1.8% to $225.6/t – for HRW hard winter wheat in Kansas City (-0.7%).
• by 1.3% to $253.9/t - for hard spring HRS wheat in Minneapolis (-0.3%),
• by 1.5% to €213.75/t or $227/t - for wheat on the Paris Euronext (-0.5%).

Favorable weather for winter wheat crops in the Northern Hemisphere is also increasing the pressure on quotations.

According to the USDA, wheat exports from the USA for January 26 - February 1 decreased by 6.7% compared to the previous week to 266.2 thousand tons, and in total in the season reached 11.27 million tons, which is 22.4% lower at last year's pace (13.8 million tons).

Analysts do not expect significant changes in the new USDA report, which will be released on February 8, so the soybean and corn balances may support wheat quotes.