Weekly US wheat export sales were up near the higher end of trade estimates combined with continued tension between Russia and Ukraine potentially jeopardising the continuation of the Black Sea Grain Corridor, to keep US wheat futures firmer.
Although weekly US wheat export shipments were lower week on week, the volume was still above the 4-week average US export volume.
Representatives from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN are to meet on Friday to discuss the extension of the BSGC. Russia continues to insist that unless they can get further demands met in regards to payments and shipping, then they will walk away from the deal, potentially leaving the door open for ships moving food products from Ukraine through the Black Sea and Ukrainian sea ports to be targeted by the Russian navy.

Tunisia are in for a boat load of durum and a boat load of feed barley, the tender closes today so we should have some numbers tomorrow. Overnight Russian barley FOB Black Sea fell further. Russian values are now closer to US$236 FOB. On the black of an envelope that works out to something close to an equivalent ex farm LPP price of about AUD$290 to AUD$300 here. This fall equates to a decline in Russian FOB values of about AUD$36 over the last week. The fall coincides with a decline in French barley values which reacted poorly to the news that China may soon open the door to Australian barley again. The fall makes Russian barley the cheapest into the Middle East market by about AUD$20. If Australian barley was moving into China at current values, it would still be the cheapest by a country mile, probably close to AUD$50 under Russian values.

Egypt picked up 655kt of wheat this week, 535kt Russian and 120kt Romanian at about US$260 FOB.