Turkey’s President Erdogan reportedly, on his way to the G20 Summit in India, is going to meet President Putin in Russia on 8 September to discuss reviving the Black Sea grain deal.

A second container ship left the port of Odesa on Saturday morning using the temporary Black Sea corridor and is heading south towards Istanbul, reportedly en route to Senegal. 

According to a survey conducted by Ukraine’s Ministry of Agrarian Policy, most farmers do not plan to significantly change winter crop hectares compared to the previous season. Almost 45pc do not plan to reduce the area planted with winter crops, 38pc plan to increase the area, and 14pc said they will not sow any winter crops this year (which is in line with normal ratios). Survey data shows that farmers will reduce wheat and barley area and increase winter rapeseed (potentially up 40pc). The survey also highlighted issues with acquiring crop inputs, with fertiliser application expected to be at 47pc of the requirement and plant protection products at 56pc. There are similar trends for fuel and seeds, with the average fuel availability estimated at 53pc and seeds at 60pc. 

Hungary’s Agriculture Minister said the government is planning to extend and expand the ban on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products beyond 16 September if the European Commission doesn’t renew its current restrictions. 

World Weather Inc reports that parts of the US Midwest received welcome rain over the weekend, but areas to the north were dry. Cooling occurred in both the Northern Plains and Midwest during the weekend. Midwest weather will trend warmer than usual again during the latter part of this week into next week, while conditions are expected to be drier than normal for the next 10 days to two weeks. 

US private exporters reported the sale of 123,000t corn to Mexico in the 2023-24 marketing year and 296,000t soybeans to unknown destinations.

South Korea’s Nonghyup Feed Inc reportedly purchased 55,000t optional origin feed wheat in a private deal on Friday estimated at $273.90/t c&f.

Australia

Local wheat and barley markets, current and new crop, started the week mostly unchanged. Canola new crop was firmer on the grower boards by a fraction. The pulse market continued to gain more upside, reaching $1000/t in SA yesterday for new and current crop lentils. 

Storm activity in the last 24 hours delivered some patchy rainfall in parts of northern NSW but the totals were all less than 15mm. As we head into the last days of August rainfall totals for the month have been virtually non-existent for cropping regions in the northern half of NSW and Qld except for the northeast which has received 10-25mm for the month. This follows below average June-July rainfall. As we head into spring, a decent rainfall event is desperately needed.