Grain prices were relatively stable on Monday and Tuesday this week. The way markets are at present, two days hovering around the same price is becoming more rare.

Matif wheat for December finished at €262.50/t on Friday 31 March, up €3/t on the week before. On 29 March, that price peaked at €267.50/t, the highest it had been since 16 March.

However, on Wednesday afternoon 5 April, it had dropped €2.75/t to €258.50/t.

Pig numbers

In recent weeks and months, lack of demand has been playing into markets as buyers held off buying what they considered expensive grain. However, animal numbers have also dropped at home.

Last week, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reported that pig numbers declined by 3.5% from June 2021 to June 2022. Breeding pig numbers fell by 14,700 (9.7%). Pig farmers are big users of Irish grain and numbers dropped amid a crisis in the sector last year.

US plantings

The US prospective plantings report showed expected increases in the areas sown to maize, wheat and soya in 2023.

The maize area is forecast to increase by 3.42 million acres. Meanwhile, the cotton area is declining by 18%.

Wet weather and snow could delay planting in some states.

Polish minister resigns

Some EU farm organisations have said that Ukrainian grain should not have unrestricted access to EU markets, given that it is not farmed to the same regulatory standards.

They are calling for more checks to be carried out on this grain. Countries bordering Ukraine are seeing large amounts of grain enter.

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that the Polish agriculture minister Henryk Kowalczyk had resigned amid farmer anger as the European Commission extended duty-free imports for Ukrainian grain until June 2024.

Oilseeds

Oilseed rape price continues to decline. It had seen a slight recovery with the French price for November at €487.50/t on Monday 3 April.

However, this dropped to €478.50/t on Tuesday and was falling further on Wednesday afternoon when it was €14.50/t below Tuesday’s price.

The European Commission has reported that oilseed production (rape seed, sunflowers and sun seed) is to increase by 7% in 2023 to 33.5 million tonnes.

The winter oilseed rape area here in Ireland is estimated at about 20,000ha for 2023, up 5,500ha from 2022.

Native prices

At home, spot and November wheat and barley prices remain unchanged from last week.