Despite the usual ups and downs commonly experienced during daily trades, futures grain prices from both the Paris and Chicago exchanges have remained at a consistent plateau over the past week.

Market prices fell sharply in early September for various reasons, but have now recovered to a more stable level in recent weeks.

Europe

On the Euronext exchange in Paris (MATIF), grain prices were mixed last Friday but, on the whole, most commodities ended the week in a similar position to where they began.

Prices for December 2015 wheat fell marginally during Friday’s trade in Paris to settle at just below €176/t, while December 2016 prices for wheat were also back marginally to €192/t.

There was a similar story for maize as prices for November 2015 were relatively static at €162/t, while November 2016 maize fell slightly in price to just over €178/t.

Having endured a volatile start in September, prices for rape have been extremely consistent over the last number of weeks. Prices for November 2015 rape continue to hover just below €370/t, while prices for November 2016 rape settled at just below €351/t, slightly higher than where they were at the beginning of last week.

Chicago

Futures prices from the Chicago exchange (CBOT) were also steady last week, after the latest grain stocks report from the USDA revised downward harvest yields and inventories for some grain commodities.

Prices for December 2015 SRW wheat were down slightly to settle at just under $189/t (€167/t), while prices for December 2016 SRW wheat fell by $1/t to just below $201/t (€178/t).

December 2015 maize prices were flat at $153/t (€136/t), while December 2016 maize was also static at $161/t (€143/t).