Source: Ukragroconsult (Ukraine)
Nearly 27,000 tons of French wheat were shipped to the United States at the end of August. The wheat was shipped to Albany, New York, where Ardent Mills operates a flour mill, Bloomberg reports, citing data from the Port of Rouen.
US-based Ardent Mills, based in Denver, Colorado, which will reportedly also import wheat from Poland in 2023, has not yet commented on this information.
Wheat acreage in the US has steadily declined in recent decades as farmers have switched to more profitable crops such as soybeans and corn. Combined with the production problems of recent years, this has led to end consumers increasingly turning to foreign suppliers. According to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), US wheat imports reached their highest level in six years in the recently completed 2023-24 marketing year due to continued drought-related production declines. A relatively small portion of the 3.76 million metric tons of wheat imported into the United States came from the European Union.
Bloomberg news agency reports, citing data from the European Commission, that the EU exported 474,00 tons of soft wheat to the United States in the 2023/24 marketing year, the highest level in more than 20 years. The Commission’s data also shows that at least 53,000 tons of European wheat have been shipped to the United States since the start of the current marketing year, which began on July 1.
France, the largest wheat-producing country in the European Union, has made shipments to New York despite having the lowest harvest in 40 years. As traditional buyers in Africa and Europe have recently switched to cheaper wheat from Russia and Ukraine, France is looking for new markets for its wheat.
While the United States generally produces enough wheat to meet all domestic demand, factors such as high rail tariffs and higher wheat prices relative to European and other foreign suppliers have led to an increase in imports.
However, with the largest U.S. wheat crop in eight years expected in 2024-25, wheat imports are expected to decline by 24% to 2.85 million metric tons in the current marketing year.