Tuesday Market Briefing - 30th August 2022

Nov LIFFE clambered back above the key £260 support level, helped this time by an influential US crop tour which pegged their corn crop some 16 million tonnes lower than the recent USDA estimate. The war in Ukraine appears to be settling into a very protracted affair. Russia has realised gas supply is its key weapon now in testing the resolve, particularly of the EU where it senses weakness, in providing ongoing support for the Ukrainian effort. NOV 23 prices have closed up massively, now within £10 of this year’s levels, surely a recognition that these same supply issues are likely to run on into next season.

So we have a market for the time being which has had a failed attempt at going lower but doesn’t really have the support to go higher, expect a choppy sideways spell ahead .

Expensive corn is definitely bringing fresh interest into the market for UK feed wheat and barley, just as well as some estimates now have the high yielding UK wheat crop producing a surplus north of 2 million tonnes. It’s been a long time since we saw anything like that and we will need to engage with markets from the get go if we are not to be left holding the baby next July.

This week’s Oat vessel in Shoreham saw heavy ex-farm take up and is well covered, watch this space for the next one. The September movement line-up includes all milling wheat grades, malting barley, and beans as well as the usual feed grains. Plenty to get stuck into then as sample results continue streaming out of the lab on a daily basis.