Miller Magazine Issue: 121 January 2020

52 COVER STORY MILLER / JANUARY 2020 Whereas they cannot significantly increase their selling prices due to competition from other countries. Profit- ability of traders also decreased. Currency depreciation in Argentina (which is one of the main competitors of Ukraine in the world grain mar- ket), provided the country more competitiveness against Ukrainian grain. Turkish currency depreciation made TMO to come into market for large amounts of wheat, corn and barley in USD. On December 14, 2019, Turkey's government in- creased wheat import quotas for TMO, the Turkish state grain buyer, by 500 KMT to 1.5 MMT to give the organ- isation more flexibility to cope with rising demand in the domestic market. Afterwards, this stocks are sold on the inner market in TRL. #7: Logistics Transport infrastructure is a crucial issue for major grain market players. In Ukraine, for example, it is a lack of grain hoppers, limitations on the weight of the car- go, which could be transported by trucks, marine freight fluctuations. #8: Quality concerns As a sample of such troubles, we should first of all, un- derline Ukrainian wheat export to its #1 export destination – Indonesia. The Indonesian Agricultural Quarantine Agen- cy (IAQA) put forward a requirement for heat treatment of Ukrainian wheat from Tilletia laevis and Tilletia tritici spores at the port of origin, and later began to insist on analyzing wheat cultivation zones and assigning them status of free zones or zones with low infection with the above fungal spores. This significantly limits the possibilities of export, since not all marine terminals have such technical ability, and such processing significantly reduces the speed of loading onto ships. It is much more efficient to carry out such processing already at the port of discharge, and In- donesian customers have repeatedly confirmed this variant. #9: Supply and demand balances Nowadays, fundamental factors have less influence on trading than previously. Even USDA reports are losing their effect on the market volatility. It is very often con- sidered as a speculative instrument of political influence. #10: Farmers sitting on stocks Recent few years of high crops in Ukraine and Russia enabled farmers to seat on stocks and wait for higher prices, traditionally noted in the second half of trading seasons. This fact is adding to the list of challenges of grain traders. Mentioned 10 foes are bravely met by grain traders on a daily basis. You can never be sure from which side a new spark will come from. This makes trader juggling in the circus of a modern grain world.