Posted on 08/17/2010 6:16:06 AM PDT by markomalley
KIEV — Ukraine is set to limit wheat and barely exports to 3.5 million tonnes from now until the end of the year due to the impact of a severe drought, the agricultural policy ministry said on Tuesday.
"We are proposing to allow the export of 2.5 million tonnes from now until the end of the year," said Agricultural Policy Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk, adding that one million tonnes currently held in ports would also be exported.
He said that the issue would be discussed at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported. The quota would come into force on September 1, he added.
Ukraine, the world's sixth largest exporter of wheat and largest exporter of barley, has been suffering the effects of a severe drought that prompted its neighbour Russia to impose a blanket export ban.
In the last agricultural year running July 2009 to June 2010, Ukraine exported more than 21 million tonnes of grain.
Under the quota, Ukraine would export only 1.5 million tonnes of wheat and one million tonnes of barely until the end of the calender year. Maize is not included in the quota.
In the marketing year from July 1, Ukraine has so far exported 2.69 million tonnes of grain.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
That’s going to suck for Ukrainian farmers, who won’t be able to sell their goods on the world market.
This sort of action by the Russian and Ukrainian governments allows wheat traders to declare force majeure and invalidate previous contracts, allowing them to then sell new contracts at the higher price.
and boomtime for American wheat farmers.
and boomtime for American wheat farmers.
Well, well, well. Wheat prices in Texas were rock bottom during our harvest. Some sold for little to no profit, some held and got a little more and the very few that are still holding are setting pretty. It was a good crop and storage was a problem. But we never understood why the price was so low.
A buyer from ADM had a relative that we know call us to see how much elevators here were paying so the buyer would know how much they had to pay. We gave the relative a message for the big boys.
The prognosis was a world wide glut, much stored wheat, blah blah blah. My prognosis is market manipulation by traders. The thing turned around too sharply way too fast.
Hoping we can get a marketing coop to deal with these big boys better.
I remember back in the Nixon years, how the Ukraine had a terrible drought year. Fears of starvation and famine abounded. In true American fashion, Nixon made a grain deal w/ the Russkies, and every available bottom in the merchant fleet was contracted to haul grain to Russia.
Those were still the Soviet days, and as a young engineering midshipman with very limited in-port duties, I managed to have the time of my life: do a little “beezness” (mostly Marlboro cigs and “Levi Strauss” jeans at OBCENE margins), enhanced US-Russian relations w/ the ladies, and managed not to end up in the hoosgow like a couple of my shipmates!
Could it happen again? Nah... Obambi would actually have to give a DAMN ABOUT ANYONE OTHER THAN HIMSELF and his cronies.
Prologue/Opening Narration of Red Dawn: Soviet Union suffers worst wheat harvest in 55 years... Labor and food riots in Poland. Soviet troops invade... Cuba and Nicaragua reach troop strength goals of 500,000. El Salvador and Honduras fall... Greens Party gains control of West German Parliament. Demands withdrawal of nuclear weapons from European soil... Mexico plunged into revolution... NATO dissolves. United States stands alone.
Does that mean somebody will make a lot of money on wheat already purchased?
As usual, the American Farmer is faced with a different problem...........see tagline.
“We have plenty of wheat to shore up the markets.”
Maybe we’ll get paid for our wheat this time instead of back in 1973 when we ‘sold’ wheat to Russia on credit because their people were starving. Russia never unloaded the wheat until their ships reached France. It never went to their “starving people”. Russia made huge profits off our compassion.
“Great Grain Robbery”, check it out.
It’s amazing to see the farmland of Ukraine - black soil that’s meters deep lying fallow for year after year. The scams there are also amazing: middlemen expoting grain and then making profits on importing the same grain (it doesn’t go anywhere, it just sits there in rail cars).
My fear is that American buyers will visit the Ukraine and come back with new ideas to screw the farmer.
I remember the wheat deal....but I believe your take is far short of the true story.
When wheat harvest took place in my part of Texas, the local elevator was paying $2.38 per bushel for wheat. There were 2 days that the local elevator would not buy wheat at all. (the excuse was that the Oil Spill in the Gulf kept the ships from the ports because of fouling the hull.) We sold part of our production in the $2.90 per bushel range. Then the excuse for the low price was that it was a wet year and the protein content was low, not true here (had 62# bushel weight) We stored (in our own bins) as much as we had capacity for, but most of the crop had to be sold on the spot to the elevators.
It is now at $6.00 per bushel. Make no mistake ADM, Continental and Cargill do totally control the world wheat market.
If you are hungry this year, do not blame the farmers. They are not making the money. If you doubt this research the cost of seed (and the impact of PVPA on this), fertilizer and fuel. Not to mention the cost of equipment. Farming is not a business for the feint of heart.
We were headed west to Tempe that spring and stopped for food in Amarillo. I remember reading in the local newspaper that the Dept. of Agriculture (don’t remember if it was Texas or the Feds) was recommending that the Texan farmers pasture their wheat. It would be worth more as beef since the selling price was less than $1.50 per bushel. Nixon sold the wheat to Russia and the price went to over $5.
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