France said that they are to convene an emergency meeting of the G20 in October to discuss possible measures to avert an emerging food crisis. On the agenda are said to be proposals to limit the usage of biofuels derived from crops to a less than 5% inclusion rate.
EU wheat closed mixed but mostly lower on the day, with Nov 12 London wheat up GBP0.50/tonne to GBP205.00/tonne and Nov 12 Paris wheat falling EUR1.25/tonne to EUR259.00/tonne. This was the first front month close below EUR260.00/tonne for the latter in a month.
The markets did a pretty good job of ignoring tumbling US soybean prices, which were sharply lower for a second day in succession.
ABARES maintained their view that Australia would export 23 MMT of wheat in 2012/13 - matching the 2011/12 record and 2 MMT more than the USDA currently predict. They are also more bullish than Washington on global wheat prospects this year, pegging the world wheat crop at 665 MMT - 6 MMT more than the USDA's estimate.
The Russian Ministry stuck by their forecast of a grain crop there of 70-75 MMT this year, around 20-25 MMT less than a year ago.
Nobody is sure how, when or even if they will make any move to restrict exports, although most are convinced that something will have to be done before too long.
The Kazakh Ministry said that their grain harvest was 87% complete, producing 11.5 MMT to date. The Ukraine Ministry said that their harvest was 72% done producing 28.5 MMT so far. Yields are averaging 2.63 MT/ha, 14.6% down vs 3.08 MT/ha last year.
Corn harvesting there is only in the early stages, producing 2.63 MMT so far. Agritel estimate a total harvest there this year of 19.5 MMT of corn, 14 MMT of wheat, 6.76 MMT of barley and 1.1 MMT of rapeseed.
That would potentially be a stark about turn, one about which the Secretary General of the EU Biodiesel Board said he was "surprised, concerned and shocked." Some recent reports have suggested that biofuels from food crops are maybe "not as environmentally friendly as first thought.
