World Flour Exports on the Rise
Global flour exports in the current and next crop seasons are estimated to grow by 6 percent over the previous year, according to the initial forecast for the new season issued by the International Grains Council (IGC), world-grain.com reports.
The IGC projected world flour exports in 2014-15 at 13,150,000 tonnes of wheat equivalent, compared with 12,380,000 shipped in the season drawing to a close this month, while the export peak was 14,560,000 tonnes in 2011-12.
In forecasting a 770,000-tonne increase in world flour trade, the IGC said the gain was “driven by higher needs in Syria, the return of Indonesia to the market following the softening of import restrictions and the re-emergence of Argentina’s supplies in South America.”
So far as flour exporters are concerned, the IGC compiles data for 16 countries, of which only one, Canada, is expected to post a reduction; the other 15 exporting countries were forecast to show gains or hold unchanged.
Notable among the top exporters were the back and forth between Kazakhstan and Turkey as the world’s leading flour exporter. For 2014-15, Kazakhstan returned to the No. 1 position with expected shipments of 3.2 million tonnes, against 3 million in the previous year and its peak of 3,652,000 in 2011-12.
One of the sharpest increases in flour exports was registered by Pakistan, with its outgo in 2014-15 projected at 400,000 tonnes, against 300,000 in the preceding year.
The only other exporter of more than a million tonnes was the European Union, at 1.1 million tonnes, unchanged from the preceding year. Argentina followed in the new year, at 900,000, compared with 200,000 in 2013-14, when exports were barred as the result of a short wheat crop. Argentina as recently as 2011-12 shipped 1,239,000 tonnes.
One of the most dramatic increases in flour imports expected in the new season is Indonesia’s imports of 800,000 tonnes, against only 300,000 in 2013-14, reads world-grains.com’ report. The increase reflected the government’s action in May of introducing a flour import quota of 441,141 tonnes for the period ended in December, assigned as 251,450 to Turkey, 136,754 to Sri Lanka and 22,057 for Ukraine, with the balance to come from optional origins. Outside the quota, a duty of 5percent will be imposed, which is a steep reduction from the previous 20percent duty on flour imports.
Source: world-grain.com