(Bloomberg) – Grain exports from the French port of Rouen, Europe’s biggest wheat-shipping hub, jumped 62 percent as loadings of the cereal reached the highest level since November 2011 on demand from North Africa.
Shipments rose to 275,504 metric tons in the week through yesterday from 169,950 tons in the prior period, the Seine River port wrote in an e-mailed report today. Wheat cargoes more than doubled to 220,004 tons from 108,950 tons.
Algeria was the biggest destination, taking 97,449 tons of soft wheat, up from 81,550 tons a week ago, while Morocco took 87,085 tons of the grain from none a week earlier. Cargoes to Tunisia included 27,500 tons of soft wheat and 52,500 tons of feed barley, compared with 55,000 tons of barley last week.
Rouen accounted for 41 percent of France’s grain exports by sea in 2010-11, exceeding the 17 percent share for La Pallice on the Bay of Biscay and Dunkirk on the North Sea with 11 percent of the total, according to port figures.
