UK cheddar imports for the first three months of 2017 stood at just over 15,900t, which is a sharp decline of 18%, or nearly 3,500t, compared with the same period last year. Ireland remains the largest exporter of cheddar to the UK, but shipments were down by almost a quarter (-23%) in March to less than 5,450t.

Egypt’s wheat-importing authority has made a strong start to its 2017/18 wheat buying programme after buying up 360,000t of Romanian and Russian wheat over the weekend for a price in the range of $205/t. This latest purchase brings Egyptian wheat imports for the season to 540,000t.

US wheat prices have jumped almost $3/t in trading this week to $176/t, as the USDA released a report which rated less than half (45%) of the US spring wheat crop as being in good to excellent condition. This is the lowest crop rating in the US for spring wheat since 1992, suggesting a poor harvest.

Australia’s official crop bureau Abares has forecast the country’s wheat harvest for 2017 at just over 24m tonnes. While the crop size has improved on previous estimates, it is still much lower than last season’s wheat crop in Australia which came in at 35m tonnes.