Market report - 28th February 2019

The significant fall in US and EU wheat markets at the beginning of the week has gathered momentum as funds/speculators continue building their short positions of wheat and corn.

However, there was some recovery on Wednesday for both old and new crop. Saudi Arabia will tender for 595,000 tonnes of wheat on Thursday and it will be interesting to see who supplies this, with French origin connecting on most recent sales to North Africa.

In the UK, news that the Ensus bio-ethanol plant in Teeside will re-open in March led to positive reactions from the market initially. However, there is a question around how much UK wheat will be used this season as the plant can also utilise imported maize if competitively priced.

Countering this market positivity, Brexit politics and the possibility of an extension to Article 50 instead of leaving the EU without a deal on 29^th March has caused sterling to firm this week from £1.15 to £1.17 versus the euro. 

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