Chronicle of raw materials
Buckwheat: lack of visibility pushes prices up
Audio 01:39
Buckwheat.
© CC0 Pixabay/Contributor
By: Marie-Pierre Olphand Follow
2 mins
Russia alone exports a third of the buckwheat consumed in the world.
Professionals and manufacturers in the buckwheat sector are worried about not being able to obtain supplies or at exorbitant prices.
Fear shared in particular by Breton crepe makers.
Advertisement
Russia is the world's leading producer, but also a major player in the international trade of buckwheat, a plant which is not a cereal, contrary to what its name suggests, but which can be made into flour, and which found in soba noodles in Asia, in porridges and soups in Eastern countries, or in Breton pancakes in France.
In 2021, Russian buckwheat exports to Europe increased by 24% compared to 2020. But for the past two months, the buckwheat trade has entered a zone of turbulence.
Moscow has not officially announced any export restrictions, but we know that buckwheat is the commodity that the Russians stock up on in times of crisis.
Russian exports will therefore depend this year more than ever on the volume of production.
But the projections promise to be difficult, the Russian authorities having decided to communicate less on their agricultural exports.
The price of French buckwheat has doubled in two years
In quantity, buckwheat is a very small world market, just over 1.8 million tonnes in 2020, according to FAO figures, so the lack of visibility to date on the strategy of the leading exporter - which is added to a bad last campaign in Eastern Europe due to bad weather – contributes to pushing up prices a little more.
Especially since because of the cost of maritime freight, Chinese buckwheat has become as expensive as French buckwheat, which has increased by 100% in less than two years, explains Johann Bazin, manager of the Crêperie de Guerlédan, who processes 500 tons of buckwheat per year.
A French professional must now pay between 1,600 and 1,800 euros per ton if he wishes to buy buckwheat, outside of the annual contracts taken out.
Fear of seeing farmers turn away from buckwheat
Faced with the imbalance between supply and demand which is likely to increase, the French sector is mobilizing and calling on farmers to increase their cultivation area.
The fear is that they give in to the temptation to produce more wheat or rapeseed, the prices of which are reaching peaks.
Buckwheat prices are traditionally much higher per ton, but the yield is much lower and the cultivation more uncertain.
In contrast, buckwheat grows without fertilizer, an argument that could play out given current input prices.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_EN
Russia
Agriculture and Fishing
Trade and Exchanges