EC WHEAT RELEASE UNLIKELY TO SATISFY U.K. DEMAND The European Commission's decision to release an additional 300,000 tonnes of British intervention feed wheat for the home market will provide only moderate relief in an increasingly tight market, traders said. Some operators had been anticipating a larger tonnage, pointing out that at this week's U.K. Intervention tender the market sought to buy 340,000 tonnes but only 126,000 tonnes were granted. The new tranche of intervention grain is unlikely to satisfy demand, they said, and keen buying competition for supplies in stores is expected to keep prices firm. The release of the feed wheat followed recent strong representations by the U.K. Grain trade to the Commission. There has been growing concern that rising internal prices, triggered by heavy exports, were creating areas of shortage in interior markets. The latest EC authorisation will add 70,000 tonnes at the April 14 tender and a further 30,000 tonnes later in the month. The remaining 200,000 tonnes will be made available in May and June. News of the release produced an early downward reaction in local physical markets, but by midday some sections had halved early two stg losses while others were unchanged. Ministry of Agriculture figures for March indicate 1.85 mln tonnes of wheat and 1.74 mln tonnes of barley remain in the free market. However, some traders believe these figures are overstated and, while some may still be held on the farm, the bulk of wheat is already sold. Some of the grain is also off the market in futures stores. A total of 2.10 mln tonnes of intervention wheat has been sold for export or to the home market since the season started July 1, leaving an unsold balance in intervention of about 1.59 mln tonnes. Intervention barley sales have reached just over 1.0 mln tonnes, leaving about 753,000 tonnes, traders said. This season's U.K. Export performance has surpassed all early expectations and has created the present nervous situation in domestic markets where the fear now is free market supplies may not last out until new crop becomes available in August. The market is sticking to its recent prediction of total barley and wheat exports of around 10.5 mln tonnes, a new record and nearly double the previous record of 5.9 mln tonnes achieved in the 1984/85 season. Traders expect U.K. Wheat exports to reach 6.0 mln and barley around 4.50 mln tonnes. The Soviet Union has booked a record total of 2.5 mln tonnes of British wheat and barley this season, but only 1.28 mln had surfaced in Customs export figures by March 25, traders said. Other EC countries have bought large amounts of British grain and for the July 1/March 25 period had taken 2.59 mln tonnes of wheat and 2.06 mln tonnes of barley. This compares with 1.28 mln and 868,700 tonnes last season. The market is expecting prices, particularly wheat, to stay buoyant for the remaining few months of the season. If supplies become more difficult and prices strengthen further, feed compounders may increase cereal substitute usage, traders said.