Given the recent headlines describing a serious global shortage of grain, it might come as something of a surprise to read that traders were offering discounted grain, but international and local traders started to offer more Ukrainian-origin grain for sale on Friday August 5th, at a discount.
However the news should not be a surprise, as the grain is still at the moment stuck in Ukraine, and buyers would be taking on board the risk that the agreement to shift the commodity out of Ukrainian ports might break down.
unprecedented scale.
Most deals to buy grain from Ukraine were cancelled after the invasion, so sellers need to find new homes for the cargoes, with time being a factor – hence the discounts.
Traders said offers included a consignment of 50,000 tonnes of Ukrainian 11.5% protein milling wheat for August shipment at $310 a tonne on a free on board (fob) basis from Chornomorsk, and another consignment of 30,000 tonnes for loading in one of the safe corridor ports at $320 a tonne fob.
Those prices were some $10 to $20 cheaper than those of Russian 11.5% milling wheat from Russian Black Sea ports.
Ukraine’s Seaport Authority earlier this week said 480,000 tonnes of wheat, vegetable oil and corn had been loaded onto ships at the three ports currently involved in the safe corridor scheme, Pivdenny (Yuzhne), Odesa and Chornomorsk.
Another million tonnes of grain is stored in grain terminals and warehouses of Ukrainian ports, the authority said.
With the vast majority of the nation’s stockpiles spread across the country, transporting them to ports could prove challenging as the war continues.
Egypt had around 300,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat booked for February and March delivery this year, but after the invasion it cancelled the contracts for four cargoes, totalling 240,000 tonnes. These never loaded, but a fifth loaded cargo was still expected to sail.
