Grain Exports From Rouen Jump on Barley Shipped to Saudi Arabia

Grain exports from the French port of Rouen, Europe’s biggest cereal-shipping hub, jumped sixfold in the latest week on the first barley shipment to Saudi Arabia since October.

Cargoes jumped to 55,450 metric tons between July 19 and July 25 from 8,440 tons a week earlier, the Seine River port wrote in an e-mailed report today. Saudi Arabia was the biggest destination with 50,000 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.

Rouen grain loadings by destination, in metric tons:

                July 19-25
Soft wheat
Portugal             3,800
U.K.                 1,650

Feed barley
Saudi Arabia        50,000

To contact the reporter on this story: Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at rruitenberg@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net