Markets have firmed from late 2020 into early 2021, but we are now seeing some fragility creep back in as domestic consumers would appear to have most of their crop 2020 requirements covered. Feed homes are now formulating for summer rations, and a reducing feed demand as farms hope to get animals back onto grass as soon as possible.
The message to longholders of unsold cereals and pulses - let your buyers know what you still have to sell - remains as important as ever, since early new crop indications do suggest prices may drift as we wind down towards the end of the season. This may seem a little odd while we are still just in February as we go to press, and the spring drilling campaign is still to come, but we believe demand will falter. Importers did stock up in late 2020 whilst there was a threat of import duties into the UK post Brexit – this may not have materialised in the end, but these stocks do still exist nevertheless. We appreciate that the organic feed wheat premium in particular over an unusually strong non organic marketplace have been weak all this season, hopefully this will reset as the harvest prospect for 2021 bounces back to a more normal level in excess of 14+ million tonnes of wheat ( 2020 UK wheat production was under 10 mln tonnes ).
We recently saw a good premium for a parcel of good milling wheat, so there could still be opportunity if you still have wheat to sell.
