India buys wheat?

[charliep]

chaffmeister beat me to the punch. Perhaps the only question I have is the CWB ability to book freight and from there actually tender on sale.

[charliep]

One question you asked that I don't think either chaffmeister or I answered.

Did Toepfer even talk to the CWB or did they just call Cargill or AU, etc, to secure Canadian grain?

Everyone who sells export wheat in western Canada has to price and source through the CWB. The CWB owns the wheat - not the grain companies. Even from the logistics side (assumed the multinational had a preference for which grain company they wanted to deal with), the CWB will specify where the grain comes from with all companies likely filling the vessels versus only sourcing from one grain company. Some could be sourced via tenders (not likely in this case) but that would be the exception.

[chaffmeister]

Toepfer has a working relationship with SWP, er, I mean Viterra. At least it did - with all the changes going on, I can't be certain.

The relationship is one where Toepfer is essentially the export arm of SWP. Not sure whether they would have included SWP in the negotiations with the CWB or not. I'm sure they would want the terms of the sale from the CWB to be on the basis of FOB SWP terminal in Vancouver - that way, SWP would get the handle. But as Charlie said, the CWB may have other ideas about logistics etc.

[rook]

thanks for your answers and insight.

[melvill]

Oh, the not-so-sweet song of GBFs in the marketplace.

Reports this morning that India's farm minister has said that India has no plans to tender for any more wheat imports. That may be the indicator that recent tenders, at very high prices, have caused enough controversy within the Indian gov't that, building the Indian wheat reserve, is on hold for a while. Or it may be posturing to try to slow down price rises until the next tender. We'll have to wait and watch.

Wondering what a GBF is? Any guesses?

[kamichel]

Chicago down 30 cents is that connected?
Over night so far up 4.25
We don't give the Indians and the Chinese enough credit for their buying power in my opinion. That is the amount they can pay.

[melvill]

Gee, nobody has taken a crack at telling us what a GBF is. What is it?

[IAMTHEMOLE]

grain buying frenzy

[melvill]

Looked up GBF on the Internet Glossary site. It's not there.

GBF is "government bugger factor". It always gets a snicker when I speak to live audiences and use GBF as a label for gov't action.