EU 2022/23 soft wheat exports up 10% on year after weekly jump

European Union soft wheat exports so far in the 2022/23 season have reached 13.35 million tonnes, now nearly 10% ahead of last year’s pace following a large volume last week, data published by the European Commission showed.

The total from the start of the season on July 1 until Nov. 13 was 9.5% above the 12.19 million shipped by the same week in 2021/22.

It also marked a bigger than usual 830,000 tonne weekly increase compared with the running total reported in the Commission’s previous report.

EU exporting countries saw brisk demand at the start of the season amid war disruption to supplies from Ukraine and Russia, which traders say is continuing to be shipped.

A breakdown of the EU data showed France remained the leading EU soft wheat exporting country this season, with 5.46 million tonnes shipped, followed by Romania with 1.70 million tonnes, Germany with 1.56 million tonnes, Latvia with 1.14 million tonnes and Poland with 1.07 million tonnes.

EU maize imports so far in 2022/23 were at 10.85 million tonnes, more than double a year-earlier volume of 4.77 million.

Forecasters have been raising projections for EU maize imports, as drought has hit the EU’s harvest while a recovery in exports from war-torn Ukraine has improved availability.

Spain was the leading EU maize importer so far in 2022/23 with 4.18 million tonnes, ahead of the Netherlands at 1.19 million, Poland with 907,000, Portugal with 877,000, and Italy with 781,000, the data showed.

The next-largest EU maize importer was Hungary with 632,000 tonnes, in a sign of the drought impact on the regular maize exporter.

EU barley exports so far in 2022/23 totalled 2.69 million tonnes, down nearly 39% from 4.38 million a year ago, the data showed.

Tags: export, Ukraine