*The table displays the highest week-on-week price movers within Mintec Benchmark Prices, focusing solely on absolute values and excluding differentials.
Potatoes
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- Market Sentiment: As of the last trading week, the market sentiment for potatoes in the EU has been Neutral. The bulk of the harvest which was delayed is available on the market, resulting in the early and maincrop entering the market at the same time, creating an oversupply. Many processing manufacturers have fulfilled their orders with contracted volumes, leaving little demand on the free-buy market. It is also expected by the NEPG that production in the 2023/24 market year will increase compared to the previous MY. The sentiment remains neutral as growers are currently resistant to sell lower than €100, a strong psychological price point.
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- Market observation: The free buy market is slow with little demand and few transactions taking place.
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- Price Assessment: The Mintec Benchmark price for Potato processing Fontane BE (MBP) ( Mintec Code: POFO) was assessed at €100 per metric tonne, down €25 per metric tonne compared to the previous week.
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Sunflower Meal
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- Market Sentiment: At the close of trading last week, market sentiment in the sunflower meal market was bullish. The price rise is attributable to a pick-up in demand from China.
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- Market Observations: Developments in harvest progress in key crop producers, Russia and Ukraine, coupled with China’s demand direction will remain watch-points.
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- Price Assessment: The Mintec Benchmark Prices for Sunflower meal cif CN (Mintec Code: SFMC) was assessed at $420.00/mt, up $60 per metric tonne compared to the previous week.
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Cream
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- Market Sentiment: Tight cream supply in combination with stable demand led to a bullish market sentiment.
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- Market Observations: The robust price increase was driven by a significant reduction in the availability of liquid cream, resulting in a supply shortage coupled with steady demand. This drop in production has led several market participants, who had previously sold cream forward in the past 2-3 weeks, to now appear as buyers in the market. They are facing reported shortages, unable to fulfil all their contractual obligations.
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- Price Assessment: The MBP for Polish Cream EXW 100% [Mintec Code: SSS23] increased by €850 per metric tonne (13.9%) on the week to reach €6,950 per metric tonne.
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Sweet Whey Powder (SWP) Feed
- Market Sentiment: At the close of last trading week of Q3, sentiment in the West Europe SWP market was bullish.
- Market observation: Market participants continued to trade higher during last week due to upward price expectations amid tightening supplies in the market. Also, there were reports of higher buying interest from Southeast Asian markets.
- Price Assessment: The Mintec Benchmark Prices for Sweet whey powder feed grade exw West Europe (MBP) [Mintec Code : SWPFWE] was assessed at €705.00 per metric tonne up €85.00 per metric tonne compared to the previous week.
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Hazelnuts
- Market Sentiment: Hazelnut prices continue climbing after this year’s output in Turkey is expected to fall short of the earlier projections. The 2023/24 production in Turkey has been officially estimated at 720,000-810,000 tonnes. However, due to adverse weather during the critical maturation stage, some market sources now peg the output as low as 620,000 tonnes which has led to a bullish market sentiment in the past few weeks.
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- Price Assessment: The Mintec Benchmark Prices for diced hazelnuts of Turkish origin delivered on a DDP basis Germany [Mintec Code: 4D21] were last assessed at €8.10/kg during the week of 27th September, an increase of over €2/kg from the end of August. Prices have also rallied significantly for other hazelnut products.
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Sunflower Oil
- Market Sentiment: As of the last trading week, market sentiment for sunflower oil has been bullish.
- The recent price increase can be attributed to two key factors: bargain buying and renewed demand from players who had been waiting for prices to drop further. This trend has been consistently observed over the past few weeks. Furthermore, Mintec has noted a significant surge in international demand, particularly with sunflower oil volumes cost insurance freight (CIF) into Turkish ports. These volumes have been trading several times at $819 per metric tonne. Additionally Mintec has learnt of trades into India with prices ranging between $890 and $910 per metric tonne.
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- Market Observations: Like many vegetable oils, future demand and price movements, in either direction, may hinge on China's activity after the conclusion of 'golden week,' which began on 1st October. The volume consumed during this period could determine whether China resumes buying or seeks limited volumes after the festival ends.
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- Price Assessment: The Mintec Benchmark Prices for Sunflower oil crude fob RU [Mintec Code: 2H08] stood at $772.65 per metric tonne at the end of the trading week, marking an increase of $76.35 per metric tonne compared to the previous week.
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Wheat
- Market Sentiment: At the close of trading last week, market sentiment in the Russian wheat market was bearish.
- Russian domestic wheat demand has been reported weak as flour mills and livestock farmers have sufficient supplies of wheat.
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- Market Observations: According to market players, the Russian wheat crop is large and storage problems will force further sales. However, government intervention in price regulation could have an additional negative impact on export rates. Thus, if Russia loses export momentum, the carry-over balance will stay in Russia, carry over to next year and put additional pressure on prices.
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- Price Assessment: The Mintec Benchmark Prices for Russian wheat milling no 3 exw (Mintec code: 2H01) was assessed at RUB 12,000 per metric tonne, down RUB 1,000 per metric tonne compared to the previous week. The last time wheat fell to such values was at the end of June 2022.