EU to Overtake US as the World’s Second-Largest Wheat Exporter in 2019-20
S&P Global – 05/13/2019
The European Union could overtake the US as the world’s second-largest wheat exporter in 2019-20, though it is likely to remain far from the top exporter position which it lost three years ago after difficult weather conditions hammered wheat output in its agriculture powerhouse, France, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s latest forecasts. he EU is forecast to export 27 million mt of wheat in the 2019-20 season (July-June), up 12.5% from 2018-19 and up 15.9% from 2017-18, USDA said in its monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report, released last Friday. USDA said Russia is set to remain as the world’s largest exporter by a large margin, as the country is expected to export 36.0 million mt in 2019-20, down from 37.0 million mt in 2018-19 due to tighter beginning stocks than in 2018-19, the USDA said.
Leading Agriculture Commodities Oppose Additional Tariffs on Chinese Goods
NAWG – 05/10/2019
Today, the U.S. Trade Representative moved forward with increasing the tariff rate from 10 to 25 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. Farmers across the country are extremely concerned by the actions taken today by President Trump and his Administration. The National Association of Wheat Growers, the American Soybean Association, and the National Corn Growers Association were expecting a deal by March 1 before farmers went back into the fields but today saw an escalation of the trade war instead. The three commodities represent around 171 million of acres of farmland in the United States. “U.S. wheat growers are facing tough times right now, and these additional tariffs will continue to put a strain on our export markets and threaten many decades worth of market development,” stated NAWG President and Texas wheat farmer Ben Scholz. “Further, members from both sides of the aisle and Chambers have reservations about the Section 232 tariffs in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Today’s announcement adds on another political barrier, which may hinder Congressional consideration of the Agreement.”
New Avenues for Improving Modern Wheat
Science Daily– 05/08/2019
Since the Agricultural Revolution about 12,000 years ago, humans have been selectively breeding plants with desirable traits such as high grain yield and disease resistance. Over time, Triticum aestivum, otherwise known as bread wheat, has emerged as one of the world’s most important crops. Together with the growing human population and the changing climate, the demand for wheat with a higher yield and additional resilience is increasing. However, for a few years now the average yield increase of wheat is stagnating. In a new international study, the genetic diversity of 487 wheat genotypes originating from large parts of the world has been catalogued and contextualised with agronomic traits. The map of this rich pool of genetic diversity in bread wheat highlights our current knowledge of the ancestry of wheat and opens new avenues within modern selective wheat breeding.
Spring Wheat Planting Delays
The Progressive Farmer– 05/10/2019
Despite one of one the slowest starts to plantings for the U.S. spring wheat crop, Minneapolis spring wheat futures remain pinned close to not only contract but multi-year lows. Similar to the situation outlined in our posts on corn, the spring wheat market shows global wheat stocks more than ample, domestic feed and milling utilization plateauing if not declining and numerous factors (cheaper overseas origin, high valued U.S. dollar, trade wars) curtailing our export sales. The market appears indifferent to the possibility of final 2019 spring wheat acreage falling short of farmer intentions or seeing yields fall below trend. We see that as of May 1 this year, a mere 16% of the U.S. spring wheat crop has been planted, well below the 10-year average of 39% and the 20-year average of 42%.
Wheat Conference to Focus on End Use
Ag Journal – 05/09/2019
Laboratory analysis shows the latest wheat varieties aren’t any higher in gluten than ancient grains. And modern wheat varieties are likely a better choice for organic production systems because they carry built-in resistance to diseases and pests. Those are some of the key takeaways wheat officials are hoping to impart during a first-of-its-kind wheat conference, scheduled at Oklahoma State University on May 15. The “All You Knead to Know” Grain Workshop is set to challenge some of the urban myths that have grown up around modern wheat, bread and gluten. With tours of food science labs and agronomic research plots on campus, scientists plan to show off one of the nation’s premier modern wheat breeding programs to a diverse group of millers, bakers, educators and influencers who might otherwise never have the chance to see the inner workings of a sophisticated land grant university. “A lot of the issues we see in terms of the disconnect between farmers and consumers is often just a lack of education. I firmly believe that,” said Mike Schulte, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, who helped organize the conference and insisted on keeping it as affordable as possible.
Source: U.S. Wheat Associates