Russian wheat export prices up on Egypt's demand

Russian wheat export prices rose for the fifth consecutive week on continuing demand from Egypt, the world's largest wheat importer, analysts said on Monday. Egypt's state grain buyer acquired 120,000 tonnes of Russian wheat on October 20 in its third tender since the start of October. Black Sea prices for Russian wheat with 12.5 percent protein content were at $175 a tonne on a free-on-board (FOB) basis at the end of last week, up $1 from a week earlier, Russian agricultural consultancy IKAR said in a note.

SovEcon, another Moscow-based consultancy, quoted them at the same level. According to IKAR, prices for 12.5 percent protein content are currently equal to traditionally cheaper Ukrainian wheat prices with 11.5 percent protein because the latter has been supported by demand from India.

"Russian sales to India are unlikely because of phytosanitary limitations," Dmitry Rylko, the head of IKAR, added. Prices for Russian wheat with 12.5 protein content in the Azov Sea were up $2 to $154 per tonne, although this export channel has been mostly suspended due to shallow water, Rylko said.

Russia exported 11.8 million tonnes of grains, including 9.7 million tonnes of wheat, between July 1 and October 19, the agriculture ministry said. The pace of grain exports was down 4 percent year on year. As for domestic demand, the government reduced purchases from farmers for its stocks last week, when it bought 67,000 tonnes of grains, down from 90,700 tonnes in the previous week, SovEcon said.