The season of 2016/2017 was marked by another rich total harvest of wheat in many of major wheat exporting countries (the harvest even hit a record high in some of them). The exception is the EU, which harvested 16 MMT less wheat (144 MMT) than last year’s bumper crop, according to the USDA.
The USDA expects EU wheat exports to shrink substantially this season, by 9.7 MMT to 25 MMT. The reasons include plummeted harvests in France – the traditional top EU exporter to non-EU countries (down by 12 MMT to 28 MMT, according to EuroStat) – and in Germany (down by 2 MMT to 24.5 MMT).
However, actual shipments from the EU show an opposite trend in the first three months of the current season due to strengthening positions of lesser EU exporters – Romania, Poland, Bulgaria – and sales of German carryovers.
Peculiar is the fact of growing presence of European wheat on Asian markets. (UkrAgroConsult/Business World Magazine)
