WASHINGTON: Wheat exports seem to be robust despite record world wheat supplies and a relatively strong dollar, according to the USDA. The department is expecting wheat exports to exceed expectations calling for a 50 million bushel increase in the 2016 and 2017 marketing year.
That forecast includes both hard red spring wheat and hard red winter wheat. USDA says export demand is helping prices, but it’s still below the 5- and 10-year average. Some analysts say high quality and strong protein demand is the bull behind the wheat market. “A lot of countries, because they haven’t been able to get their typical 11 to 12 percent protein winter wheat out of the United States, they’ve had to buy 14 percent protein to do a lot of the blending,” said Tregg Cronin of Halo Commodities. “A lot of countries that don’t usually buy spring wheat like Venezuela and Egypt because their quality wasn’t the greatest, we’ve been exporting spring wheat to Canada.” Cronin says the U.S. is looking at declining stocks of spring wheat and building bushels of winter wheat.
