Early Wheat Harvest in Ukraine Has Mixed Results

The Ukrainian wheat harvest has mixed results so far. Senior Vice President of futures broker R.J. O’Brein, Zsolt Vincze says the initial harvest from Ukraine showed good yields due to good weather, but the value may be another story.

“The farmers used less chemicals and fertilizer, so the protein is quite a bit lower on a good portion of the crop. It is anywhere from seven, eight, or nine percent protein. So, that’s why they have been aggressively offering feed weed for sale from the Black Sea,” he said. “My sources are telling me that the farmers are not selling the 11 and a half [protein] wheat. They’re holding on to that and they just trying to part with the feed wheat.”

Vincze made the comments during a Northern Crops Institute marketing webinar.  He says Eastern Europe has the largest share of feed wheat this year, and even the Baltics are having problems with wheat quality.

“Overall, there’s less milling wheat available than previous years and I think that is also reflected in the price spread between feed wheat and milling wheat in those markets,” he said.

Meanwhile, the governor of the Odesa region on the Black Sea reports that Russian air strikes in southern Ukraine this week damaged grain silos and warehouses at one of the Danube River ports, a key facility for grain shipments.

Tags: quality, Ukraine, harvest, wheat, crop, yield, fertilizer, chemicals