In the US futures market we see soft red winter wheat at Chicago relatively flat while the higher grades of wheat were a little firmer by the close. Minneapolis spring wheat lead the way higher gaining 13c/bu (AUD$6.41) in the December contract. Across the border in SE Saskatchewan PDQ report spring wheat cash bids for a December pickup at C$382.29, up C$3.97 for the day.

The strength in spring wheat did not roll across to the durum market. The average cash bid across SE Sask slipped C$26.27 to C$756.26 per tonne there. The last three days have virtually wiped away the big rally from early in the week resulting in a week on week gain of just over C$15. Using avg cash values out of SE Saskatchewan to determine a comparable Aussie values remains difficult but if we use a conservative FOB basis value of C$100 we come up with an average price between PNW to Japan and the East Coast to Italy of something close to AUD$840 XF LPP.
Trying to inject a little reality to this number we look towards Italy and what value French durum is being offered to the Italian market at. The price there is also very variable at this time. On average we see offers close to E430 FOB La Nouvelle in the Mediterranean. This would compare to about AUD$565 ex farm LPP. French durum is also offered into Algeria at about US$580CnF. This might come in closer to AUD$600 XF LPP equivalent. As mentioned before there are a lot of variables at play when doing these simple comparisons so take these values as a rough guide only. Turkish values are also firm at about US$590CnF which would work in our favour and increase values here.