UK wheat exports soared to their highest in nearly a year, as the shipping constraints caused by low Rhine and Danube water levels caused European feed plants to switch grain suppliers.

The UK, the European Union's third-ranked producer of the grain, exported 291,511 tonnes of wheat in October, customs data showed.

The figure was the highest total since November last year, and represented a second strong month for shipments, boosted by the inability of exporters dependent on barges on the Danube and Rhine to fulfil grain orders.

While recent rain has replenished Rhine water levels, such that traffic is now returning to normal, Danube river levels remain low, sapped by the dearth of rain evident in the poor health of winter grain seedlings in Ukraine, where the river flows into the Black Sea.

US Department of Agriculture foreign staff in Belgrade have reported 100 barges blocked in Serbia country alone, and fears that the transport squeeze will not improve until the spring.

Big buyers

The October figure took UK wheat shipments in the first four months of 2011-12 to 850,531 tonnes, down 30% year on year, and a reflection of a slower start to the season fostered by heightened competition from the Black Sea following a bumper Russian harvest.

However, exports to the Netherlands - where the Rhine reaches the sea, and a key destination for grain barges from central Europe - are up 11% year on year, at more than 370,000 tonnes, of which 118,401 tonnes were shipped in during October.

Trade talk over the autumn had feed makers in the Netherlands, along with those in Belgium and Germany, boosting in particular their reliance on UK grain.

UK wheat exports to Belgium and Luxembourg reached 23,485 tonnes in October – 10 times their level of the month before.

To Germany, barley exports were more notable, soaring from September's 3,050 tonnes nearly to 18,000 tonnes.

Outside Europe

UK wheat exports outside the EU remained muted, at 5,442 tonnes, taking the total for the July-to-October period to 7,187 tonnes – compared with more than 174,000 tonnes a year before, when trade was boosted by the withdrawal of drought-hit Black Sea countries from sales.

Indeed, the UK has, unusually, sold more barley than wheat outside the EU so far this season.