The big news this week is the release of the first harvest grain prices of the year.

Centenary Thurles Co-op was the first co-op or merchant to set a price last Friday.

The co-op will pay €225/t for feed barley and €237/t for feed wheat, including a €9/t bonus.

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This brings the base price for green barley delivered at harvest to €216/t, with green wheat at €228/t.

These are green prices and based on a moisture content of 20%.

Keep an eye on the Irish Farmers Journal website for more harvest 2026 grain prices as they are announced.

Matif wheat for December closed at €241.50/t on Friday and was up to €243.75/t on Tuesday’s close.

Corn markets have seen an increase over the past few days. French corn was at €264/t on Friday evening, but rose to €276/t on Tuesday evening.

US corn traders were waiting to see whether any US grain would be bought by China during this week’s state visit to Washington DC.

Corn yields

Argus Media reports that French corn yields remain disappointing as the harvest progresses.

They also reported: “Dry weather conditions continue to cause concern in France, both for the plantings that have not yet been finalised and for the condition of crops already seeded.”

French rapeseed for November closed at €549.75/t on Friday. It saw an increase on Monday to €556.25/t, but closed on Tuesday at €552/t.

Reuters reports that Australian canola has been purchased by private Chinese crushers, the first such deals since early 2020.

Gulf oil supply prospects have improved, with Iran signalling the Strait of Hormuz could reopen within seven days and Saudi Arabia preparing to reopen the east-west pipeline.

The EU MARS global outlook on Ukraine bulletin was released on Monday.

It reports that fair summer crop yields are expected. Grain maize and sunflower yields are forecasted slightly above the five-year average, with soybean yields 5% below their five-year average.

IGC report

The latest International Grains Council grain market report shows an increase in world total grains of 4m tonnes since last month, bringing the total to 2.42bn tonnes.

Any reduced production in Oceania, Europe or Australia will be offset by larger harvests in north Africa and near-east Asia.

This is a reduction of 3% compared with last year. Soybean production is down by 1m tonnes, but the forecasted 440m tonnes would still be the world’s largest every soybean harvest if realised.

The report also states that because of continued disruption to Black Sea exports, “global wheat flows to date are unusually slow”.