MARKETS OUTLOOK: Wheat market absorbs Russian export curbs

摘要

GLOBAL wheat markets have spent most of 2015 to date in retreat from a steep run-up in prices in the final weeks of last year. Many readers may be aware that the main element in that upturn was the decision by fourth largest exporter Russia to curb the too-rapid flow of its once-plentiful milling wheat onto world markets at a time when doubts were rising about the size of its next harvest. As the rouble nosedived with the collapse in value of Russia's crude oil exports and Western sanctions - keepingRussian exports cheap - there did seem a real risk, as the year turned, that too much of its wheat would be snapped up by foreign buyers, leaving its domestic market short and at risk of escalating costs for that most basic staple, bread. Russia is also thought to need more wheat and other cereals for animal feed this seaso as it tries to boost domestic livestock output to replace embargoed meat imports from Europe and the USA.