Germany faces biggest wheat imports in a decade-INTERVIEW

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Wednesday September 01, 2010 02:06:11 PM GMT

HAMBURG, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Germany may import up to one million tonnes of milling wheat in the coming year, its first major imports for a decade, after rain seriously damaged the country's harvest, the head of German flour mills association VDM said on Wednesday.

Most of the imports are expected from France but more purchases of high quality grades are possible from the U.S., VDM chief executive Manfred Weizbauer told Reuters.

Germany, in most years the European Union's second-largest wheat exporter, will be unable to cover its requirements for milling quality grain for the first time in years after prolonged rain damaged the quality of the country's harvest this summer, Weizbauer said.

U.S. traders said on Tuesday a German mill has bought 20,000 tonnes of high quality U.S. spring wheat. It was the first non-durum U.S. wheat purchase by Germany since 2007 and the largest volume of milling wheat sold to the country in nearly a decade, according to U.S. Agriculture Department export sales data. (Reporting by Michael Hogan; editing by James Jukwey)

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