Brazilian soybean farmers have got the taste for it

Sometimes it seems as if there is no longer any demand for wheat. That is not the case, as evidenced by a tender from Saudi Arabia. In the US, wheat exports are on schedule. However, the sentiment is not really changing. Due to the shutdown in the US, there is no Crop Progress this week, but we do have figures on soybean planting in Brazil. It is a spring season (southern hemisphere) there according to the book. The December wheat contract on the Matif closed yesterday unchanged at €187.75 per ton. On the CBoT, wheat closed 2½ lower at $5.12¾ per bushel. Corn showed a slight increase and closed 2¾ cents higher at $4.21¾ per bushel. Soybeans traded mostly sideways in the past trading session at the Chicago exchange. Soybeans closed a quarter cent lower at $10.17¾ per bushel. Saudi Arabia has reportedly purchased 455,000 tons of wheat for delivery in December and January. The average price for the wheat in this tender comes out to $263 per ton C&F (cost and freight) according to some sources. The bulk of the tender would be filled with wheat from Russia. The remaining part of the wheat that Saudi Arabia has bought would come from other countries around the Black Sea. The Ikar quotation for Russian wheat rose this week by $2 to $232 per ton. The export of Russian wheat remains somewhat sluggish according to various analysts. Due to a relatively low wheat price and a fairly large harvest, there is little to no incentive for buyers in the global market to bring purchases forward. This issue is not only affecting Russia but also Ukraine and the EU. The US is able to export wheat In the US, on the other hand, wheat exports are ahead of schedule. In the week ending October 2, America exported 500,000 tons of wheat. In total, 10.2 million tons of wheat have been exported by the US this season. That is 18% more than the same period last year. Of the total export that the USDA has predicted for the entire season, 42% has been exported. The five-year average for this week is that 38% of the expected seasonal export has been executed this week. American exporters are being helped by the relatively low value of the dollar. This makes American wheat relatively attractively priced for buyers in the global market. Although we had some export figures from the US, there is no Crop Progress report from the USDA this week. Due to the government shutdown (the closure of various public services because the debt ceiling needs to be raised), the progress of harvesting and the planting of winter wheat in the US is temporarily not being tracked. After some rain in the past few days on the corn belt, the weather this week is favorable for the harvest of soybeans and corn in the US according to various local sources. Especially in the more eastern corn belt, the weather is returning to somewhat warmer and drier than average conditions. According to the weather models, this is expected to last at least two more weeks. The pace is picking up From Brazil, we do have new figures on the progress of soybean planting there. According to AgRural and Patria Agronegocios, 9% of the planned soybean area is in the ground. Thus, Brazilian farmers are making good progress. Only once before has more soybeans been planted in this week. In the largest agricultural province, Mato Grosso, 15% of the planned soybean area has been planted. In some southern and central regions, already 40% of the soybeans are in the ground. If the rain that is forecast for next week actually falls, Brazilian soybean farmers will not only be able to plant early, but the crop will also grow rapidly according to AgRural. This is especially important for the second crop of corn that is planted after the soybeans. Being able to plant the corn on time has a significant effect on the expected yield.