Wheat, corn and soybean futures were all lower in overnight trade at Chicago. US exports have not been as high as the punters had expected to see.
The Ukraine / Russia war which has resulted in the suspension of exports from Ukraine and greatly limited exports from Russia has not resulted in the big uptick in US export sales that many had expected to see. Although this is an analysis with a mid to long term view expectations were that export orders would be trending higher for corn and wheat by now. As for soybeans the biggest thing driving prices now does not appear to be the Black Sea conflict but more so the issues in S.America.

Nearby Paris rapeseed futures were down E68.00 yesterday but were up E51.50 last night, huge swings for the May 22 contract. The outer month, Feb 23 was down E5.75 on Wednesday night and unchanged in last night’s session. The volatility remains in the nearby contract.  In Canada the Winnipeg canola contract for the Jan23 slot found good support, recovering much of the previous sessions losses to close at C$953.60, just C$3.90 under the contract high set on Tuesday. With new crop here bid at $949 this does show a significant improvement in basis when compared to the old crop. At negative $47.00 to Jan23 ICE, it might even be considered good (compared to last year). For example we were already well into the negative $200’s this time last year.

Thailand picked up 70kt of Indian feed wheat at US$369 yesterday. Egypt are holding talks with the US, Argentina and India for the supply of wheat. Green groups are now lobbying for the EU to suspend the use of crop based biofuels, can’t please some groups can you. Better find the treadly.