Trading activity on the Product Exchange Novi Sad softened the latest week, reflecting a broader imbalance between supply and demand across Serbia’s agricultural markets. While wheat and corn remained the dominant commodities, overall volumes declined as buyer participation weakened.
Market dynamics were defined by limited purchasing interest, with transactions executed in smaller quantities compared with previous periods. This shift points to a cautious stance among processors and traders, likely influenced by price expectations and inventory positioning ahead of the new agricultural cycle.
Corn trading illustrated the imbalance most clearly. Supply increased noticeably, offered across a wide price range depending on delivery parity and quality factors such as aflatoxin testing, while demand remained subdued. Contracts were concluded between RSD 22.10 and RSD 22.50 per kilogram, with a weighted average of RSD 22.30/kg, marking a 1.33% week-on-week decline.
The wheat market followed a similar pattern. Supply outpaced demand, and buyer interest weakened relative to earlier weeks. Wheat with 12% protein content traded at around RSD 21.20/kg, showing only a marginal 0.21% increase week-on-week, before demand softened further toward the end of the trading period, effectively halting additional transactions.
Across other agricultural commodities, inactivity was even more pronounced. Soybean trading failed to materialise despite downward price adjustments on the supply side, as buyers continued to bid below seller expectations. Barley offers largely went unanswered, reflecting a wider lack of market depth beyond the core grain segments.
The overall picture is one of supply-driven pricing pressure in a low-liquidity market. Elevated availability of key crops, combined with restrained demand, is pushing prices into a narrow but downward-leaning corridor—particularly for corn.
From a broader market perspective, the current trading pattern signals a transitional phase. Agricultural producers appear willing to release volumes, while buyers are holding back, anticipating either further price corrections or clearer signals from export markets and regional demand.
In that sense, the week’s activity on the Novi Sad exchange reflects more than short-term fluctuations. It underscores a structural condition increasingly visible across regional commodity markets: price discovery is being driven less by scarcity and more by demand uncertainty, with liquidity becoming the defining constraint.
