Rouen grain shipments rise in a week to highest since April
Grain exports from the French port of Rouen, Europe’s biggest cereal-shipping hub, more than doubled in the latest week to the highest since April on demand for wheat from Africa and a barley shipment to Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reports.
Cargoes jumped to 144,942 metric tons between Aug. 9 and Aug. 15 from 56,425 tons a week earlier, the Seine River port wrote in an e-mailed report today.
Shipments in the week included 92,438 tons of wheat and 52,504 tons of barley. Algeria was the biggest destination with 52,500 tons of soft wheat, followed by Saudi Arabia with 44,000 tons of barley.
Rouen accounted for 41 percent of France’s grain exports by sea in 2010-11, ahead of La Pallice on the Bay of Biscay, with a share of 17 percent, and Dunkirk on the North Sea, at 11 percent of the total, according to port figures.