French wheat for December closed at €224/t on Tuesday of this week, back up to the same price it had reached a week ago, following a dip over previous days.

US wheat was also up on the week. The Chicago wheat price for December had reached 710.25c/bu last Tuesday, 12 May and returned back up to 699c/bu on Tuesday of this week. The US-China trade deal talks were impacting markets and funds came in and out of the market.

The decline of the Euro/dollar exchange rate could help European prices. On Wednesday morning both European and Chicago prices were in the red, but the decline was not big and, overall, the trend is showing a price increase in recent weeks.

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The Irish Farmers Journal spoke to Arthur Portier of Argus Media at this week’s World Seed Congress in Lisbon. He said: “the market is very volatile, especially on wheat as we have to work with geopolitics, but also weather.”

He noted the talks between the US and China have helped prices to surge this month.

“Now we will all look at what will happen in Australia because we know that we will have a strong El Nino at the end of the year, so November/December. It could help prices to rise for farmers and producers, but we also have to note that we have plenty of stock around the World due to a good harvest in 2025.”

Arthur noted that the French maize crop is down 10-12% this year, mainly due to high fertiliser prices.

He said crops in France are good at present. Some dryness affected malting barley planted in the winter.

“I would say now I am quite optimistic regarding the situation [in French crops] at this time of the year, but the harvest is still far away.”

European Bulletin

This week, the European Commission’s crop monitoring in Europe bulletin noted that low rainfall levels were raising concerns in central, eastern and northern Europe.

The total cereal yield forecast was unchanged from last month and, is up 2% on the five-year average. Barley and rapeseed yield forecasts were both estimated down 2% in the report.

In the US the latest Crop progress report had 76% of corn planted as of 17 May, up on the five-year average. Soybeans were 67% planted, up 14% on the five-year average.

Native prices

At home this week Dairygold increased its price offer on oilseed rape to €500/t for green rape at harvest, up from €485/t on the previous offer.

This reflected the rise in global markets with French oilseed rape for November reaching its highest price this year on Tuesday of this week, closing at €530.75/t.

In Northern Ireland last week, November feed barley was quoted at £203.50/t from Belfast, up £3/t on the week before, while feed wheat was at £215.50/t, up £6/t on the week before.