Rouen port grain shipments slide 61%
Grain exports from the French port of Rouen, Europe’s biggest cereal-shipping hub, slumped 61 percent to the lowest in four weeks as Algeria took no wheat, Bloomberg reports. Export cargoes fell to 50,172 metric tons between May 17 and May 23 from 128,998 tons a week earlier, the Seine River port wrote in an e-mailed report today. That included 41,350 tons of soft wheat, down from 123,401 tons the previous week.
Morocco was the biggest destination, taking 26,000 tons of soft wheat, the first delivery to the country in seven weeks. No grain was shipped to Algeria, after that country took 75,684 tons of soft wheat the previous week.
Rouen accounted for 41 percent of France’s grain exports by sea in 2010-11, ahead of La Pallice on the Bay of Biscay and Dunkirk on the North Sea, which shipped out 17 percent and 11 percent respectively, according to port data.