U.S. Wheat Exports Seen Expanding into Brazil
Successful Farming – 11/13/2019
As a result of the election of Alberto Fernandez in Argentina, Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has taken actions that favor U.S. ag products over Argentinian products.Fernandez’s running mate is former president Cristina Kirchner, who had a very protectionist administration until 2015. Recently, Bolsonaro allowed the entrance of 750,000 tons of U.S. wheat with zero tariffs. Argentina is the top supplier of wheat into Brazil with over 7 million metric tons with unlimited quotas without tariffs because it belongs to the Mercosur free trade blocs…“Brazil is a quality-focused wheat market and its flour millers recognize that U.S. wheat can help them better meet their customers’ needs,” said U.S. Wheat Associates President Vince Peterson in a press release. “Opening the TRQ (tariff rate quote) will give those millers more consistent access to our wheat classes while still having the option to source from other countries. That is how the market should work, and we welcome this opportunity.”
FranceAgriMer Increases Wheat Export Forecast Again
Reuters– 11/13/2019
Farm office FranceAgriMer on Wednesday increased its forecast of French soft wheat exports for a second month in a row, adding to expectations that France is benefitting from a big harvest and reduced Russian competition to gain market share overseas. In monthly supply and demand estimates for major cereals, FranceAgriMer pegged French soft wheat shipments outside the European Union this season at 12.0 million tonnes, up from 11.7 million projected last month and a new four-year high. The revised 2019/20 wheat export forecast was up 24% compared with last season’s level. FranceAgriMer had already increased its estimate last month from an initial outlook of 11 million tonnes in September.
U.S.-China Trade Talks Hit Snag Over Farm Purchases
The Wall Street Journal – 11/14/2019
Trade talks between the U.S. and China have hit a snag over farm purchases, as officials seek to lock down the limited trade deal President Trump outlined last month. Mr. Trump has said that China has agreed to buy up to $50 billion of soybeans, pork and other agricultural products from the U.S. annually. But China is leery of putting a numerical commitment in the text of an agreement, according to people familiar with the matter. Beijing wants to avoid cutting a deal that looks more favorable to the U.S. than to China, some of the people said, and also wants to have flexibility within the agreement should trade tensions escalate again. “We can always stop the purchases if things get worse again,” said one Chinese official. The dispute over farm purchases is one of several issues that have delayed completion of the limited trade accord announced by Mr. Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Oct. 11.
Moisture, Cold Postpone Winter Wheat Production
The Dickinson Press – 11/13/2019
Wheat is more than the backbone of North Dakota’s economy. Long before the state was even conceived, the crop has been both a sweet friend and fickle lover as climates, with markets in tow, shift to their rhythms. For generations the average farmer on the Western Edge tended to focus on one of three types of wheat: hard red spring wheat, hard red winter wheat or durum, a circulation that depends on weather, labor distribution and the overall health of their land. Although the majority of farmland in the southwestern region of North Dakota is dedicated to spring wheat, this time of year fields should be filled with rows of hard red winter wheat, a crop that is usually planted during the fall, normally September, and harvested in the early spring. “In order for the winter wheat to seed, it has to go through a dormancy period,” Amy Norby, an agronomist at CHS Southwest Grain, told the Press. “It starts to regrow in the spring and is usually one of the wheats that gets harvested first because it’s grown first.”
US Wheat Growers Break Contest Records
High Plains Journal – 11/13/2019
At 211.59 bushels per acre, Rick Pearson’s AgriPro SY Ovation entry from Buhl, Idaho, broke all expectations for the 2019 National Wheat Yield Contest. It won the Bin Buster Award for the Irrigated Class and set a new record. Since 2017, the National Wheat Foundation has put together the National Wheat Yield Contest as a way to show the possibilities of today’s wheat genetics across the nation. According to the Nov. 12 press release announcing the winners, the National Wheat Foundation’s National Wheat Yield Contest offers growers the opportunity to compete with farmers from across the United States and improve their production practices through new and innovative techniques.
Source: U.S. Wheat Associates