Grain prices were generally depressed this week. On 24 June, the Matif wheat price for December peaked at a monthly high of €212/t. It fell to €208.75/t on Monday and Tuesday this week. On Wednesday afternoon, it was at €209.25/t.

To look back at recent months, the highest price that market reached this year was €226/t on 29 April. The lowest prices the market reached was in January, dropping to €199.75/t.

Corn prices in France have risen over the past two weeks or so. On 15 June, November corn was at €2023.25/t. On Wednesday afternoon this week, that price was at €225.50/t. The drier weather is likely affecting this.

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Higher corn prices can help wheat and barley prices. US corn has not shown the same trend, as weather conditions look favourable at present.

Harvest is now beginning in many countries, with winter barley harvest well underway in England and France.

Hot weather is bringing in these crops very fast.

The euro-to-dollar is back to 1.14 and Agritel said this is “offering a boost in competitiveness to French origins in search of new outlets”.

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board reported “marginal pressure across all UK feed wheat contracts during the week as sterling strengthened against the euro”.

US

In the US on Wednesday, wheat, corn and soybeans were on the up and showing a steady trend over the week.

In the US, 48% of the winter wheat is now harvested, 67% of corn is in good or excellent condition and 65% of soybeans.

US corn looks to be well above the standard “knee high by 4 July” in many parts, with pictures of tall crops in many states suggesting good conditions, matching up with the above figure.

The US released its acreage report on Tuesday. Approximately 90,300 farm operators were surveyed during the first two weeks of June. Corn acreage is down 3% and soybean acreage is up 5% from last year.

The report said: “Growers expect to harvest 87.4 million acres of corn for grain, down 4% from 2025.

“Soybean harvested area for 2026 is estimated at 84.4 million acres, up 5% from last year,” the report said.

“All wheat planted area for 2026 is estimated at 42.7 million acres, down 6% from last year.”

Winter wheat takes up 31.5m of those wheat acres. Corn stocks are up 14% from the same time last year at 5.29bn bushels, while wheat stored totalled 920m bushels, up 8% from a year ago. Soybean stocks totalled 1.06bn bushels, up 5% from 1 June 2025, the report said.

Native prices

This week, the IFA reported spot feed wheat prices (dried) for November/December 2026 of €220 to €225/t and feed barley prices of €212 to €220/t.