Can Australia Increase Value in Philippines Wheat, Barley Markets?
Grain Central – 08/27/2019
PROVIDING grains education and technical services in the Philippines could stimulate and support demand for Australian wheat and barley in that country, according to a new AEGIC report. Report co-author Dr Peter White said while there were other more compelling prospects for Australian grain in South East Asia, strong population and consumption growth in the Philippines could represent opportunities for Australia.Dr White said the median age of Filipinos was 23 years which — coupled with the estimated $US25 billion sent home by the 10 million Filipinos living in other countries — meant people were consuming more wheat-based products. “Consumers that are relatively wealthy and young tend to eat more convenience foods, including instant noodles and baked products,” he said. “There is significant demand for wheat in the Philippines, in fact it is already one of Australia’s biggest wheat markets. In 2018 it was Australia’s second biggest wheat market by volume (1.4mmt) and value ($437m). “However almost all of this is for animal feed, a market which is more at risk from lower-cost producers and other commodities. “The wheat for food market is dominated by the United States, which has very strong historical ties with the Philippines.”
Kazakhstan Aims to Triple Wheat Exports to China
Reuters – 09/11/2019
Kazakhstan could potentially more than triple wheat exports to China, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on a visit to China on Wednesday. Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s largest grain producer, and Russia, one of its main competitors in wheat exports via the Black Sea, have long sought to sharply increase wheat and other agricultural exports to China. “Last year (Kazakh) grain exports to China reached 550,000 tonnes,” Tokayev’s office quoted him as saying at a meeting of a Chinese-Kazakh business council in Beijing. “We could increase these volumes to 2 million tonnes.” No timeframe was given for reaching the target. Tokayev did not say what measures Kazakhstan and China would need to take in order to achieve such growth. He also said the former Soviet republic could supply China with salt, dairy products, meat and poultry.
New US-China Talks Follow 17 Months of Chaos
Agri-Pulse – 09/11/2019
High-level U.S.-China negotiations used to generate high hopes for an imminent deal, but optimism is fading in Washington and the heartland even as new talks are scheduled next month. Key to success in October will be China’s willingness to honor previous agreements that the country backed out of in May, but even some of the highest-level Trump administration officials are not optimistic that will happen. “We would like to go back to where we were last May, but I don’t know if that’s possible …” National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said. “This is a difficult matter.”Ted McKinney, USDA’s top trade official, says he only gives it “50-50” odds.
Rains Are Too Much, Too Late for Farmers
AgWeek – 09/10/2019
Gray clouds spitting rain on his eyeglasses, Lindsey Fingarson pulls up a rain gauge from the soggy ground on his farmstead near Edinburg. The gauge, mud sticking to its bottom, registered 1.25 inches…“The timing of the rain is all wrong,” he said on Tuesday, Sept. 10. That’s because, besides being too late to help his drought-damaged early crops, the rains hurt Fingarson’s wheat crop; though, it yielded well despite the dry conditions. Fingarson’s wheat, like many farmers’ crops, sprouted, which reduced their value. “After the crop is ripe, if it gets wet again, it will start to sprout,” said Tom Burchill, Walsh Grain Terminal LLC manager. ”Kind of halfway through the season, we got some rains and it started to affect the quality of the wheat so it isn’t appropriate for selling to mills.”
Farmers can get discounts of more than a dollar a bushel on wheat if the results of the “falling numbers” test,” which helps identify whether it will be suitable to mill into flour for baking, are too low.
Bonneville Dam Lock Still Cracks; Timeline for Fix Unknown
Capital Press– 09/10/2019
Barge and elevator operators who rely on the Columbia River to transport millions of bushels of wheat to market say they hope a fix for a damaged concrete sill at the Bonneville Dam navigation lock will take place sooner rather than later. “One nice thing is we’re 95% done harvesting, so I think we’ve all put the crop away,” said Damon Filan, manager of Tri-Cities Grain and a member of the Washington Grain Commission. “We’re all kind of hoping this will be a very temporary one-week or two-week outage.” A contractor is demolishing the sill Tuesday, with cleanup expected to conclude Sept. 11, said Chris Gaylord, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the lock. Once that happens, engineers will assess the gate’s foundation, and provide a timeline for repairs. Three groups in the industry are the most impacted — grain shippers, transporters and exporters, said Rob Rich, vice president of marine services at Shaver Transportation Co. in Portland. Morrow County Grain Growers was slated to ship several barges this week, said grain merchant Brian Peiler.
Source: U.S. Wheat Associates