Resumption of Ukrainian grain purchase by int'l traders helped prop up domestic prices -GrainTrade

MOSCOW. Aug 24 (Interfax) - The successful departure of the first bulkers from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports has made traders more optimistic, and international companies have resumed grain purchases in Ukraine's ports, Ukrainian media said, citing the websites of the GrainTrade electronic grain exchange.

According to GrainTrade data, demand prices for food-grade wheat in the Odesa, Pivdennyi (Yuzhnyi) and Chornomorsk ports stand at 7,000-7,500 hryvni per tonne, or $190/$205 per tonne, thus corresponding to the level of prices in the Danube ports. However, transshipment via seaports is more acceptable for farmers supplying agricultural products due to the lower cost of transporting their products to the Odesa region's ports as compared to the cost of transportation to the Danube ports.

At domestic silos, demand prices for food-grade wheat increased to 5,000-6,000 hryvni per tonne the day before, prompting processing enterprises also to raise its price to 6,000-6,200 hryvni per tonne with delivery to the mill.

Among factors behind the hike in wheat prices, GrainTrade listed the Ukrainian Grain Association's August 22 reduction of its forecast for Ukraine's grain harvest by 8.6% to 19 million tonnes from the July forecast of 20.8 million tonnes. Other factors impacting the prices include the decline in wheat exports to the United States, which have been at 4.49 million tonnes since the start of the 2022-2023 marketing year (July 2022-June 2023), a 22.1% drop from 5.768 million tonnes shipped to the U.S. over the same period the year before.