Russian wheat prices fall on weaker demand from Egypt, Turkey

Russian wheat export prices fell last week, hit by weaker demand from Egypt and Turkey and the rouble's strength against the dollar, an agricultural consultancy said on Monday.

Black Sea prices for Russian wheat with 12.5 percent protein content were at $187 a tonne on a free-on-board (FOB) basis at the end of last week, down $2 from a week earlier, Russian consultancy IKAR said in a note.

Egypt, the world's largest buyer of wheat and the top purchaser of Russian wheat, has rejected, on a preliminary basis, seven grain cargoes since introducing new import rules in January, according to traders.

Meanwhile, Turkey has put on hold purchases of Russian wheat, maize and sunflower oil from mid-March, although Ankara denies it has formally banned imports from Russia.

Russia exported 28.02 million tonnes of grain, including 21.69 million tonnes of wheat, between July 1 and March 29, the agriculture ministry said, down 0.2 percent year-on-year.

Domestic prices for third-class wheat fell 125 roubles compared with the week earlier to 9,825 roubles ($174.44) a tonne in the European part of Russia on an ex-works basis, according to SovEcon, another Moscow-based consultancy. Ex-works supply does not include delivery costs.

New-crop sunflower seed prices fell by 125 roubles to 18,075 roubles per tonne, SovEcon said, while domestic sunflower oil prices fell by 325 roubles to 41,750 roubles and export oil prices fell $5 to $705 per tonne.

IKAR's white sugar price index for southern Russia rose to $591 a tonne, from $565 the previous week.