The harvest of 2021 is now all but a distant memory and attention has now firmly turned to getting crops for harvest 2022 into the ground. Planting progress in Ulster and the northern half of Leinster has been good aided by favourable weather condition conditions in the last two weeks of September. In south Leinster and east Munster where growers are generally advised to avoid planting winter cereals in September, planting has largely only commenced in the past few days.
The largest Irish grain buyers have now unveiled their respective green grain prices for 2021. Dairygold have topped the prices paid with their decision to pay €212 for green feed barley and €222 for green wheat, with both prices inclusive of €5/t shareholder bonus. The Boortmalt FOB Creil malting barley price has also been finalised at €237.65/tonne.
Irish Native / Import Dried Feed Prices 04/10/2021
| Spot €/t | Dec 2021 €/t | Nov 2022 €/t | |
| Dried Feed Wheat | 250-260 | 250 | 220 |
| Dried Feed Barley | 240 | 240 | N/A |
| OSR Dry | 600 | 500-520 | |
| Maize (Import) | 280 | 270 | N/A |
Native grain prices have strengthened again during the month of September on the back of global trends. Native spot wheat has traded at €245/t for much of September but is now trading in the range of €250-260/t depending on the day. Prices for dried feed barley have also increased from approximately €230/t to €240/t.
International Grain Markets
Global grain markets have rallied towards a bullish position in the past three weeks. This rise is particularly evident on the Paris MATIF milling wheat index with prices now trading for December 2021 at €263/t compared with €238/t in the first week of September. These increases have been partially caused by supply issues with European milling wheat and the French crop in particular remains in a challenging position. However, announcements from the USDA stating that global wheat stocks are now at their lowest level in 14 years has also given the market some impetus. This is despite the EU Commission raising the forecast for the European wheat harvest by 3.8 million tonnes. For the longer-term outlook, dry planting conditions and continuing export taxes in Russia are giving support to 2022 futures.
For maize the market remains bearish with brisk harvest progress in the USA keeping pressure on the market. In contrast, the European maize harvest is well behind, analyst AgriMer reported that just 2% of the French maize crop was harvested by September 27th. Prices for imported maize landed in Ireland remain very firm at €280/t spot and €270/t towards January 2022. As a result, native wheat and barley in store remain competitively priced which bodes well for demand.
Oilseeds
Rapeseed prices continue to remain exceptionally high on the back of heavily reduced global supply in 2021. On September 30th, a new record closing price of €651 was reached on the Paris MATIF index. This would see dried oilseed rape in store here worth in excess of €600/t. Future prices for August 2022 at the time of writing are in the range of €520-528/t, this means that growers here could now lock in 2022 crop at approximately €500/t up from €480/t in September.
Soya markets are comparatively quiet compared to other commodities, but the outlook is bearish overall. Good harvest progress in the Midwestern states of the USA and higher than anticipated stock levels in a USDA have kept markets under pressure.
