Currencies

Currency has seen a bumpy week with the £ losing value against both the $ and the € following the poor outlook for Chinese real estate firm, Evergrande.

With the UK government heavily invested in global equities, which inadvertently means, they were invested in Chinese real estate, the collapse of Evergrande will have a negative effect on the £.

Wheat

Wheat has continued to be volatile starting the week lower with little fresh news to drive the market post USDA report.

Australia continue to report that they will harvest a record crop and Ukraine has officially now recorded their record 33 MlnT crop. US corn and soya harvest pressure spilt over into wheat as well. 

The UK market seems stuck between the support level of £182 and resistance of £195 with no real big news stories to test those levels. Although as it stands, the Evergrande story and switch by investors to move into ‘safe’ homes, has pushed us back up to test that £195 resistance level.

The general feel is still that there is enough wheat and that the market now needs to understand what quality is available and where. The hope would be that this would then pressure the feed wheat market but with outside pressures also adding to the volatility of markets, nothing seems to be straight forward this season!

Barley has now moved to pretty much parity to wheat with as much tonnage as possible sold for malting. The strong export demand and strong malting premiums has meant that there is now a short supply of barley so feed manufacturers are likely to switch it out of diets in favour of wheat.

Soya

Soya seems to have bucked the trend of most markets this week moving down slightly on Chicago with the ever more optimistic view of this years harvest.

This has not necessarily filtered through to physical prices in the UK with a weaker £ and freight continuing to rise in price, prices actually ended the week firmer.

Organic Markets

The organic markets for this coming winter continue to move up at an alarming rate. Organic cereals across Europe and the Baltic region are tight and there has been a portion which has been sold as conventional because premiums were still too low. This coupled with the ongoing  logistics challenges, has seen grain move up circa £40 per tonne in the space of a month.

Proteins remain the biggest area for concern with the supply chain unsure if they will be able to secure the container freight to supply Europe from homes such as China and India. There are still questions over India’s crop and if they will even actively come to the market to sell which would see the UK switch their reliance to Chinese material, something which has not been the case before and comes with its own uncertainties.

The mix of uncertainty over volumes and ongoing freight issues have seen soya move up to over £900 per tonne for new crop.

And Finally…
The names Bond…Commander Bond

Daniel Craig was this week given the same honouree title as James Bond this week ahead of the launch of his final film in the franchise.

The actor said he was ‘truly honoured and privileged’ to receive the title from the senior service.

A Royal Navy spokes person who worked closely with Craig and the crew on No Time to Die said that the services honouree ranking officers played a crucial part in promoting the career opportunities which can be found in the navy across the world as well as providing moral and interaction with serving troops and their families.

Regards,
Kay Johnson & Martin Humphrey