Fertilizer Markets and Finance

Morocco’s wheat imports are to set a record by a distance, turning the country into a high-ranking buyer, thanks to crop damage which has sparked a grains “crisis”, driving barley prices to twice those the other side of the Mediterranean.

The North African country will import 5.6m tonnes of wheat in 2012-13, thanks to setbacks to domestic crop hopes from drought and “unusual cold spells” which have slowed development of crops which did germinate, US Department of Agriculture officials in Rabat said.

Imports at that level would be 75% higher than those expected for this season, and trounce the current record, of 4.19m tonnes, set four years ago.

They would also promote Morocco up the ranks of wheat importers, to not far short of typical buy-ins from the likes of Algeria and Japan, and well above the likes of the Philippines and Turkey which the country usually ranks with.

Read more at Agrimoney

Ukraine exported 283,600 metric tons of grain in this month’s first nine days, ProAgro said, citing preliminary information from local ports.

Wheat accounted for 154,500 tons of deliveries, the Kiev- based commodities researcher said in an e-mailed statement yesterday, without giving a comparative figure. Shipments came to 121,900 tons for barley and 7,100 tons for corn.

The biggest batch of wheat, at 65,000 tons, was shipped to Saudi Arabia, according to ProAgro. Barley was exported to Saudi Arabia and Iran, and corn went to Iran, it said.

Japan bought 10,600 metric tons of feed wheat and 100,900 tons of feed barley today through a tender system introduced to loosen government grain-import controls, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said.

Shipment must be made by Dec. 31, Masafumi Otsuka at the ministry’s grain-trade division said today by phone. A breakdown of the countries of origin wasn’t available, he said.

The ministry, which holds feed-grain import tenders every Wednesday, plans to hold its next tender on Sept. 14 for a maximum of 50,000 tons of wheat and 200,000 tons of barley. The tender is held under the so-called simultaneous buy-and-sell system.

Ukraine exported about 1.8 million metric tons of grain last month, said Sergey Stoianov, director of the Kiev-based Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation producers’ group, without providing a prior comparison.

Shipments included 700,000 of wheat and about 1 million tons of barley, Stoianov said in e-mailed statement today.

Japan bought 22,500 metric tons of food wheat and 45,206 tons of food barley today through a tender system introduced to loosen government grain-import controls, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said.

Of the total wheat, 19,500 tons were from Canada, 2,000 tons were from Australia and the reminder was from France, Masafumi Otsuka at the ministry’s grain-trade division said by phone. All the barley was from Australia, and shipments for the grains must be made by Nov. 30, he said.

The tender was held under the so-called simultaneous buy- and-sell system, in which food makers and trading companies jointly bid for grains of any origin and quality.

Russian farmers may harvest as much as 56 million metric tons of wheat this year, the country’s Grain Union President Arkady Zlochevsky said, a third more than in 2010.