World Grain - April 2011 - 71

FEATURE: HGCA/NABIM CONFERENCE

“It’s really the improved demand from the main exporter markets that has been key this season,” he said. “We’ve seen competitive pricing in the ﬁrst half of 2010-11 against our main rivals, the French.” HIGH PESTICIDE USE British farmers produce high wheat yields, but they do it by using high levels of inputs. “We have the highest pesticide use of any country in Europe,” noted top agronomist Bill Clark, director of the research centre Brooms Barn. He reckoned that producing milling wheat required a different mindset to producing large quantities of feed wheat. He identiﬁed septoria and the rusts as the main problems, which could affect quality and yield. He also expressed concern about Fusarium, or at least about some farmers’ failure to prevent the most obvious risks. “No sensible grower of milling wheat should be growing maize in the rotation,” he said. He criticized the use of strips of maize for cover for game birds. “If you’re going to put game cover, put something else,” he said. However, Clark reminded delegates that some types of Fusarium have few or no symptoms. “People talk up Fusarium,” he said. “It looks much dif-

Agronomist Bill Clark talks about crop inputs during the conference.

“We are not expecting to see any assessment of the export ban until spring or summer,” he said. “If we manage to achieve an 86-million-tonne Russian grain crop, I’d expect to see Russian exports of seven to ten million tonnes.” In the European Union (E.U.), wheat area for 2011-12 had risen by 1.5% and production was expected to reach 135 million tonnes, compared to E.U. grain trade body COCERAL’s ﬁgure of 128.1 million for 2010. That could mean a stock recovery and “an ambitious export target of 20 million tonnes.” Watts also called for the coming reform of E.U. farm policy to make sure there is a reserve of land available. “The market needs to maintain access to that land that at £100 a tonne probably isn’t proﬁtable but at £150 a tonne helps increase supply,” he said. U.K. EXPORTS FAST From a British perspective, the main feature of this year has been fast exports at levels not apparently justiﬁed by the balance sheet. “By the end of December, the U.K. had exported 1.89 million tonnes of wheat,” he said. “It’s above the indication for the total season which is 1.3 million. We need to see further change in supply and demand.” He suggested that grain might come into Europe from outside to make up the difference. “It may well be that we see some Australian grains imported into Europe, even into the U.K.,” Watts said. High prices could cut demand from the level originally foreseen, while the balance sheet might also be made to balance by taking U.K. wheat stocks down to a record low.
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World Grain - April 2011

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