-Argentina raises SBM/SBO export taxes as expected
-CP lockout/strike begins
-No USDA sales announcements
-Funds limited net activity in grains in latest CFTC data
ï‚· With Russia in control of the Black Sea, IKAR said their wheat exports continue without much impact and could ship more than 2.0 MMT in March vs 1.15 MMT last year in the same month. Sovecon currently estimates Russian wheat exports in March will be 2.2 MMT vs 2.5 MMT in February. IKAR puts 12.5% protein Russian wheat from Black Sea ports at around $390/tonne fob although western sanctions on Russian banking operations are creating some payment issues.
ï‚· As anticipated, Argentina raised export taxes on soybean meal and soybean oil by 2% to 33% to bring the tax rate for products in line with that of soybeans. The new tax rates will remain in place through the end of 2022.
ï‚· Canadian Pacific Railway locked out workers and fully halted operations on Sunday as an agreement with labor unions was
unable to be reached during weekend negotiations. Negotiations continue.
ï‚· A Ukrainian presidential advisor said the country has enough grain to support domestic needs for a year, but may not be able to export grains in the coming year if the Russian invasion detrimentally impacts spring planting.
 Argentina preliminarily set next year’s wheat export quota at 10 MMT, which will allow new crop export registrations to be made up to that level until a better handle on the potential crop size is available. Planting of the new crop will get underway in May. This year’s wheat exports are currently estimated at 14.0 MMT by USDA, while the Argentine government’s quota/allowance on wheat exports from the current year’s crop is 14.5 MMT.
 AgRural estimates Brazil’s soybean crop is 69% harvested vs 59% at this time last year.
ï‚· There were no USDA sales announcements this morning.
 China sold 522.8k tonnes of the 524.8k tones of wheat offered at last week’s state reserve auction at an average price of 2,958 yuan/tonne ($465/tonne;$12.66/bu) vs the previous week’s auction’s average price of 2,991 yuan/tonne ($470/tonne;$12.80/bu) and was the lowest price paid in three weeks.
ï‚· South Korea bought 60k tonnes of U.S. corn late last week, priced at $426/tonne c&f for June 15 arrival. Turkey tendered for
210k tonnes of wheat for April shipment. Philippines is believed to have bought around 150k tonnes of Australian and/or Indian wheat for May-October shipment periods.
ï‚· Another bird flu finding at an Iowa commercial egg-laying operation will result in the culling of 5.3 million birds, bringing the
nationwide poultry cull to 12.6 million across eight states.
 Friday afternoon’s CFTC Disaggregated COT data for the week ended 3/15/22 showed rather modest fund position changes with minor net buying in corn of 4.1k contracts to push their net long to 373k contracts (record is 429.2k) and net buying in CBOT wheat of 2.7k contracts, but funds remain net long only 22.9k (record 80.8k). Funds were net sellers of 1k contracts in soybeans and are net long 171k (record 254k), but were net buyers of 6.5k SBM (net long 103k/record 133.5) and buyers of 3.5k SBO (net long 89k/record 126.5k). Funds were net sellers of 0.5k KCBT wheat (net long 44k) and net buyers of 1.5k MPLS wheat (net long 14.4k).