Wheat Atlas Blog

Wheat news

Wheat news from around the world - 2014, Week 18

Wheat export price
HRW (Gulf)* increased slightly from US$ 342/t (4/25/2014) to over US$ 350/t (5/02/2014).
France Grade 1 (Rouen)** remained more or less stable during the week around US$ 293 /t.
Main reasons for continuously high prices are concerns over a disruption to supplies from Russia and Ukraine and dry and hot weather in southern Plains (US).
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Asia
Iran: In meeting with CIMMYT DG Dr. Lumpkin, Iranian Agriculture Minister Mahmoud Hojjati stressed the importance of the self-sufficiency in the wheat production for the country. The goal of current initiative is using high yielding, pest and drought resistant varieties to increase the yield by 1.5 t/ha in about 2.5 million hectares of farmland in western Iran.
Read more – Iran

Pakistan: Despite the problems with current procurement scheme, the government of Pakistan has so far procured about 514,017 tons of wheat through its wheat procurement campaign for the year 2014-15 across the crop sowing areas in the country. During the current crop season, government is planning to procure about 8 million tons of wheat to fulfill the domestic requirements as well as keep the strategic food reserves.
Read more – Pakistan (1), Pakistan (2)

Nepal: Wheat farming is apparently no more profitable in Nepals Parsa district. Many farmers regret the fact that they stuck to wheat farming while many other farmers were smart enough to switch to other profession. Even those who are using modern technology for farming made no profit, but at least they are able to cover the investment amount. Data show that farmers switching to other crops are a growing trend in Parsa district. According to the figures provided by the District Agricultural Office, wheat farming this year shrunk by 1,000 hectares compared to the last year. Its impact is visible on wheat production, which declined by 3,297 metric ton than the earlier year. One of the main reasons seems to be low procurement price of wheat.
Read more - Nepal
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Africa
Egypt: The Ministry of Supplies and Domestic Trade started buying local wheat in mid-April and expects to keep on receiving wheat from local farmers until mid-July. The government expects to buy 4.25 million tons (compared to 3.4 million tons last year) of local wheat by July this year, almost half of the projected harvest's 9.6 million tons. Total wheat consumption in Egypt is around 17 million tons (USDA).
Read more: Egypt
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Europe
UK: According to Adas crop consultancy, disease remains the mist widespread threat to the UK winter wheat crop, although black grass pressures are high in some areas with heavier soils, while dryness is also emerging as a threat in the east too. The Adas crop consultancy, in a monthly briefing on UK grains, restated a caution of "high" levels of some diseases, notably Septoria, a fungus which has been known to cause crop losses of 50%.
Read more: Great Britain

Do you know who the farmer with highest recorded wheat yield is? It is Mike Solari from New Zealand who harvested 15.636 t/ha in 2010. Mike has a brother back in UK – Richard Solari, who is also wheat farmer and is hoping to beat his brother’s world record wheat yield this harvest on his light land in Shropshire with a helping hand from irrigation.
Read more: Great Britain/New Zealand
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North America

Canada: Wheat stockpiles in Canada, the world’s second-largest exporter, rose 46.9 percent from a year earlier, a government report showed.
Read more: Canada

US: Wheat closed higher as the Kansas Wheat Tour got underway and saw crops with less yield potential than last year. Support also came from forecasts for little, if any; beneficial rain will be seen in the Great Plains through the weekend and next week when the temperature is also expected to raise up. It remains very dry in western section of the Great Plains from Kansas to the south, and these areas comprise the bulk of the HRW crop.
Read more: USA-Kansas (1), USA-Kansas(2)

US: Winter wheat is planted in the autumn and harvested the following summer or autumn. Agricultural experts say it’s still too early to be certain, but there are signs that the annual “winter kill” of the region’s wheat crop may have been greater than normal. Up in northwest Ohio, the early planted wheat seems to be in pretty good shape,” said Clay Sneller, an associate professor of horticulture and crop science and a wheat specialist at Ohio State University’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster. “But the later-planted wheat, the wheat planted toward mid-October, seems to be the one suffering the most,” Mr. Sneller added.
Read more: USA-Ohio

US: Oregon State University soft white winter wheat Kaseberg, previously thought to have had a resistance gene to stripe rust, has been found to not have the gene. OSU Cereal Grains Specialist Mike Flowers says that's good and bad news. Researchers were concerned about the possibility a new strain of stripe rust capable of overcoming a key resistance gene which is not the case
Read more: USA-Oregon

US: Amarillo – Texas A&M AgriLife Research is developing genetic diagnostic markers to identify wheat streak mosaic virus resistance, providing wheat breeders a new tool in breeding wheat varieties resistant to one of the region’s most prevalent diseases.
Read more: USA-Texas
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South America

Argentina:  Argentinian president Cristina Kirchner announced on March 28 the release of 500 thousand tons of wheat for export and the payment of wheat escrow for over 10 thousand producers in total of 206 million pesos. The last decade was not good for wheat in terms of area, considering that was losing ground at the expense of other crops. During the 2001/02 marketing year, the wheat area planted reached 7.1 million hectares, to fall to 3.2 million in the 2012/13, the lowest in at least 40 years. It is foreseen to grow by about 17% in 2014/15, which is however still far below the level area sown in early 200.
Read more: Argentina (1), Argentina (2)

*(US Wheat, Hard Red Winter, Fob US Gulf ports)
**(EU - France Grade 1 Rouen)

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