Quality concerns boost EU wheat exports to Asia

Asian countries have accounted for a greater share of the EU's wheat shipments so far in 2021-22, as larger domestic feed wheat production has partially displaced the region from its traditional milling wheat buyers in north Africa this year.

South Korea emerged as the second-largest importer of EU wheat over 1 July-30 August, having received a combined 428,000t in the period, or 11.6pc of overall shipments from the EU, provisional European Commission data show. In comparison, no wheat cargoes were delivered from the EU to South Korea at the same time last year.

And total EU soft wheat exports to South Korea totalled 128,000t in the 2020-21 marketing year, accounting for just 0.005pc of the 27.31mn t exported from the region in the period.

Meanwhile, Vietnam became the fifth-largest importer of EU soft wheat in the first nine weeks of the current marketing year, having received 259,000t of the product in the period. This compares with nothing received by Vietnam in July-August last year and just 1.39t for the whole of 2020-21.

In contrast, shipments to Algeria — one of the largest importers of EU wheat — fell to 539,000t so far in 2021-22 from 668,000t last year, forming 14.7pc of overall EU shipments this year, down from 20.4pc in same period of 2020-21.

Trade flows have shifted this year as Algeria has sought alternative options for milling wheat amid increasing crop quality concerns in the EU, particularly in France — Algeria's largest wheat supplier. Russia exported 28,000t of wheat to Algeria in June, its first cargo in four years, and is due to ship another 60,000t next month. This followed Algeria's partial revision of its wheat standards to allow Russian supply, market participants said.

Up to 40pc of French wheat output could be rated as suitable for animal feed purposes only this year, with heavy rainfall in western Europe this summer weighing on French crop quality. This in return implies that French exporters may need to target large animal feed buyers in east and southeast Asia to ease excess feed wheat supply concerns within the EU.

By Bilal Muftuoglu