UK wheat exports jumped by more than 60%, boosted by the first sales to the US in two years and a historically large shipment to Algeria, besides European demand swollen by transport hitches.

UK wheat exports hit 442,797 tonnes in November, up from less than 273,000 tonnes the month before, customs data showed.

The figure was also the best for at least the last two seasons, ahead of the 439,156 tonnes reported for November 2010.

Trade was boosted by the first significant exports outside the European Union in 2011-12, led by a 49,498-tonne shipment to the US, part of a landmark contract won by Openfield, the UK's biggest farm co-operative.

US grain buyers, which had not purchased UK wheat since 2009-10, have turned increasingly to foreign feed wheat supplies in the face of historically-elevated corn prices.

Dutch imports

Algeria too turned up as a major buyer, of 24,876 tonnes of wheat, more than it bought in the whole of either of the previous two seasons, besides more than 20,000 tonnes of barley.

The North African country - while historically buying most of its grain from France, with which it shares historic ties besides geographical proximity across the Mediterranean – may be showing an increasing willingness to consider alternative sources, being rumoured to have bought considerable grain from Argentina.

However, most UK exports went to other European countries, including the Netherlands, to which exports soared 52% month on month above 173,000 tonnes.

Many wheat users, such as feed mills, in north western Europe were denied their usual supplies by low Danube and Rhine water levels which prevented, or reduced, river shipments from central Europe, forcing them to turn to supplies shipped over the sea.

Rapeseed surge

The data also showed significant UK rapeseed exports, of more than 120,000 tonnes, over the month, taking total shipments so far in 2011-12 to more than twice the level in the first five months of last season.

Shipments have been boosted by the quest by continental biodiesel plants for supplies, following a second disappointing harvest by Germany, the top grower of the oilseed, which cost the country its place as the European Union's top grower.