IGC blames resistance to higher prices for fall in wheat flour trade estimate

Resistance to sharply higher prices was blamed by the International Grains Council (IGC) for a reduction in its estimate of world trade in wheat flour in the 2010-11 season.

In its latest analysis of trade prospects in the current season, the IGC placed the likely total at 11,700,000 tonnes in wheat equivalent, down 530,000 tonnes from its prior forecast made late last November.

At the indicated total, 2010-11 world trade in wheat flour would have dipped to the lowest level in four years, or since 2006-07, when the global volume totaled 10,696,000. The estimated outgo for the current season would be down 9% from the world flour trade record of 12,879,000 tonnes achieved in the 2009-10 crop year.

The latest 2010-11 estimate, equal to 187 million cwts of flour, was still sharply above the recent export low of 5,861,000 tonnes of wheat equivalent in 1985-86.