A few weeks ago Irish grain growers were complaining about the prices that the merchants were offering for their produce following this year’s harvest. It is little wonder that the prices that were offered were quite low by Irish standards when just recently it has been announced that wheat is being shipped from Russian ports at just €86 a tonne. It is then being exported and landed in Italy for €103.64 a tonne which is far less than what the Irish farmer would hope to receive for his crop. It seems that both wheat and maize continues to be imported into the EU at the current knock-down prices even though the same EU has just recently brought back the import levies.
By all accounts there appears to be plenty of grain available worldwide, with the Ukraine exporting almost 10 million tonnes up to the end of October, which is far greater than in 2007/08. That massive export figure is expected to grow to 25 million tonnes for the entire 2008/9 season.
Nearer home, it has been reported that in England UK£90 is the recommended price of feed wheat, but if sterling had not been devalued recently, this figure would only a little over £77. This is equivalent to only a little over €90. Even though the market for grain is not good at the present time, a situation which is likely to remain for the foreseeable future, 58.5 million hectares of winter wheat has been planted this year. That is just about the same number of hectares as 2007.
